title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The 29th Bombardment Group was moved to MacDill Field from Langley Field, Virginia, on 21 May 1940. Lieutenant Colonel Vincent J. Meloy, commander of the 29th Bombardment Group, led the first flight of aircraft to MacDill on 17 January 1941. This consisted of 14 aircraft flown from Langley Field to MacDill Field - three B-17s, two A-17s, and nine B-18s. The group flew antisubmarine patrols over the eastern Gulf waters until June 1942, when the group was transitioned into a B-24 Liberator Operational Training Unit and assigned to II Bomber Command at Gowen Field, Idaho.The 44th Bombardment Group was activated at MacDill Field on 15 January 1941 equipped with the Consolidated B-24A Liberator. The Liberator was originally ordered by the Royal Air Force as the "LB-30" or Liberator I. These aircraft were destined for RAF Coastal Command for use in its battles against the U-boat menace. With a normal operating range of 2400 miles, the Liberators nearly doubled the effective range of the B-18, and it could fly long antisubmarine patrols equipped with a large bomb load to attack submarines if spotted. Patrols were also flown over the Atlantic Coast east of Florida. After the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the 44th was reassigned to Barksdale Field, Louisiana.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In addition to the antisubmarine mission, another prewar mission of MacDill Field was "Project X", the ferrying of combat aircraft eastward to the Philippines via ferrying routes set up by Ferrying Command over South Atlantic Ocean and Central Africa. The aircraft were then ferried via India to Australia, where they were planned to be used to reinforce the Philippines Air Force. These operations began in February 1941, and were performed by the 6th and 43d Bombardment Squadron flying the B-18 Bolo and B-17 Flying Fortress. In just 60 days, 15 LB-30 and 63 B-17 aircraft departed MacDill via the South Atlantic and Africa to Australia.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: With the United States's entry into World War II, the primary mission of MacDill Field became the training of bombardment units under III Bomber Command. In June 1942, the 21st Bombardment Group was assigned with B-26 Marauder medium bombers as the Operational Training Unit (OTU).Also, the group flew antisubmarine patrols over the Gulf of Mexico.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The B-26 earned the slogan "One a day in Tampa Bay" due to the number of early-model B-26 aircraft that ditched or crashed into the Tampa Bay waters surrounding MacDill Field. Early models of the B-26 aircraft proved hard to fly and land by many pilots due to its short wings, high landing speeds, and fighter-plane maneuverability. Improvements to the Block 10 version of the aircraft, known as the B-26B-10, added six feet of additional wingspan and upgraded engines that eliminated most of these problems. Nine of the 12 combat groups that flew the B-26 in Europe were activated and trained at MacDill, and in combat, the B-26 enjoyed the lowest loss rate of any Allied bomber.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In addition, MacDill Field provided transitional training in the B-17 Flying Fortress. The first Eighth Air Force Flying Fortress groups were trained at MacDill prior to their deployment to England in the summer of 1942. Also, the command and control organizations for Eighth Air Force were organized and equipped at MacDill in 1942. Heavy bomber training ended in July 1942, as the B-17 group training mission was reassigned to II Bomber Command and moved to the Midwest and Western states.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: Estimates of the number of crew members trained at the base during the war vary from 50,000 to 120,000, with as many as 15,000 troops stationed at MacDill Field at one time. A contingent of Women's Army Corps troops arrived in 1943. The base provided various forms of entertainment, including band concerts, live performers, and a movie theater.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: Two films were made in Tampa during World War II with wartime themes: "A Guy Named Joe" (1943) starred Spencer Tracy and had scenes shot at MacDill; "Air Force" (1943) starred John Garfield and had scenes shot at Drew Field. In the latter film, MacDill-based B-26s were painted as Japanese bombers, and although the entire Tampa Bay area defenses were alerted to this, the U.S. Coast Guard still shot at the planes as they flew over the Gulf.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In late 1943, when Second Air Force began transitioning to B-29 Superfortress training, the B-17 mission returned to MacDill, which continued through the end of World War II. As a result, the 21st Bombardment Group was disbanded on 10 October 1943, and the OTU that performed the B-17 training, the 488th Bombardment Group (Heavy), was activated in November 1943 with four bombardment training squadrons.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In an administrative reorganization by HQ Army Air Force on 1 May 1944, numbered training units in the Zone of the Interior (ZI) (continental United States) were redesignated as "Army Air Force Base Units". At MacDill, the 488th Bomb Group was redesignated as the 326th Army Air Forces Base Unit (Heavy Bombardment) and B-17 training squadron tail codes were designated as "H, J, K, and L".


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: Beginning in January 1944, the 11th Photographic Group used MacDill for its mission of photographic mapping in the US, and sent detachments to carry out similar operations in Africa, the CBI theater, the Near and Middle East, Mexico, Canada, Alaska, and the Caribbean. The unit flew a mixture of B-17, B-24, B-25, B-29, F-2, F-9, F-10, and A-20 aircraft equipped with cartographic cameras. The 11th PG inactivated in October 1944, being replaced by several intelligence and mapping training units at the airfield from 1945 through 1948.Several bases in Florida, including MacDill, also served as detention centers for German prisoners of war (POWs) in the latter part of 1944 and 1945. At its apex, 488 German POWs were interned at MacDill.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In February 1945, the 323d Combat Crew Training Wing (Very Heavy Bomber) was established at the base with a mission of training B-29 Superfortress aircrews. The first training class began at the end of February. The B-29 Superfortress arrived at MacDill Field on 26 January 1945, with additional aircraft arriving during the spring and summer and the first B-29 aircrew graduating in May. On 16 April 1945, MacDill was assigned to Continental Air Command, and became a primary training facility for aircrew assigned to the B-29 Superfortress.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: On 24 June 1945, a hurricane hit the Tampa Bay area, and the B-17 aircraft were evacuated to Vichy Army Airfield, Missouri. At the end of June 1945, B-17 replacement crew training ended at the base. With the end of the war in Europe and the B-17 being used almost exclusively in Europe, the need for replacement personnel by Eighth and Fifteenth Air Force units was ended.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The 326th Army Air Forces Base Unit was reorganized into an Army Air Forces separation (326th AAFBU (Separation Station) ) unit to process military demobilizations. The demobilization and separation functions became the major mission at MacDill in the fall of 1945, but a lack of personnel was the main inhibiting factor. On 1 January 1946, with the closure of Drew Army Airfield, the demobilization and separation activities performed by the 301st Army Air Forces Base Unit (Separation Station) at Drew were transferred to MacDill Field, with the separation station remaining open until December 1949. With the end of hostilities in September 1945, the B-29 aircrew training program began to scale down and the base became a reception facility for returning Twentieth Air Force bomb groups from the Marianas. These groups were:


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The rapid demobilization after the war led these units to be inactivated during 1946. Headquarters, III Fighter Command, moved from Drew Field in December 1945 and both III Bomber and III Fighter Commands were inactivated on 8 April 1946.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: On 21 March 1946, Continental Air Command was redesignated as Strategic Air Command (SAC). On 4 August 1946, SAC activated the 307th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy) as the host unit at MacDill, initially equipped with Boeing B-29 Superfortresses. Known initial operational squadrons of the group were the 370th, 371st, and 372d Bombardment Squadrons.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The group was selected as SAC's first antisubmarine unit in December 1946. A precursor to similar SAC units, the group began training other SAC combat units in antisubmarine warfare and operational procedures until this mission became solely assumed by the U.S. Navy. In February 1947, the group began operating a B-29 transition training school and standardized combat training for all SAC units, and in September 1947, the bomb group and the base became a U.S. Air Force organization and installation with its divestment from the U.S. Army and the establishment of the Air Force as an independent branch of the U.S. armed forces.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The unit was redesignated as the 307th Bombardment Wing, Medium, on 12 July 1948. Under the wing designation, the 306th Bombardment Group (effective 12 August 1948) and 307th Bombardment Group (effective 12 July 1948) were attached to the wing. This brought three additional operational squadrons (367th, 368th, and 369th Bombardment Squadrons) under the wing's command. In 1952, the 307th Bombardment Wing was bestowed the lineage, honors, and history of the USAAF 307th Bombardment Group of World War II fame.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: On 1 September 1950, the 307th Bomb Group with its three squadrons of B-29s was deployed to Far East Air Force Bomber Command, Provisional, at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, engaging in combat operations during the Korean War. From Kadena, the 307th staged attacks against the rapidly advancing communist forces in South Korea. While in Okinawa, the 307th was awarded the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation for its air strikes against enemy forces in Korea. It was also awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation and several campaign streamers.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The 307th BG returned from deployment on 10 February 1951, but elements of the group remained deployed in Okinawa on a permanent basis. Later in 1951, the B-29s of the group at MacDill were replaced by the Boeing B-50D Superfortress.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: Also on 1 September 1950, the 306th Bomb Group was transferred to the newly activated 306th Bombardment Wing at MacDill and continued the wing's training mission.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The 307th Bomb Wing was inactivated at MacDill on 16 June 1952 and the 307th Bomb Group was permanently reassigned to Kadena Air Base upon the inactivation of the wing at MacDill.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: On 1 September 1950, the 306th Bombardment Wing was activated at MacDill AFB and became SAC's first operational B-47 jet bomber wing. Upon activation, operational units of the wing were the 367th, 368th, and 369th Bombardment Squadrons under the 306th Bombardment Group, which was transferred from the 307th BMW.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: Deliveries of the new Boeing B-47A Stratojet to the Air Force and SAC began in December 1950, and the aircraft entered service in May 1951 with the 306th Bombardment Wing. The 306th was intended to act as a training unit to prepare future B-47 crews. As such, the B-47As were primarily training aircraft and were not considered as being combat ready. None of the B-47As ever had any operational duty in front-line SAC combat squadrons.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: On 19 November 1951, the 306th received its first operational Boeing B-47B and christened it "The Real McCoy" in honor of Colonel Michael N. W. McCoy, USAF, the wing commander of the 306th, who flew it from the Boeing Wichita plant to MacDill. During 1952, the 306th developed combat procedures and techniques for the new bomber and the wing soon emerged as a leader in jet-bombardment tactics and strategies. The first Boeing KC-97E Stratofreighter assigned to SAC was delivered to the 306th Air Refueling Squadron at MacDill on 14 July 1951. In-flight refueling operations started in May 1952 with KC-97s refueling B-47s on operational training missions leading toward combat-ready status.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In 1953, the 306th became the first operational B-47 bombardment wing. The wing became the backbone of the US nuclear deterrence strategy by maintaining high levels of ground alert in the US and at overseas bases. The wing was also awarded the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for its role as a pioneer and leader in jet bombardment tactics. B-47Bs from the 306th Bomb Wing began a 90-day rotational training mission to England in June 1953, marking the first overseas deployment of the B-47. Captain (Major selectee) Glenn A. McConnell led the first four B-47s to RAF Brize Norton, UK. For its role in advancing jet bombardment tactics, the wing was again awarded the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award. Additional deployments were made to RAF Fairford England, June – September 1953, and at Ben Guerir AB, French Morocco (later Morocco), January – February 1955, October 1956 – January 1957 and October 1957.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In 1954, SAC designated specific air refueling organizations and the 306th Air Refueling Squadron became ready to support B-47 operations across the command. During 1954, the more advanced B-47Es, equipped with ejection seats, improved electronics, and a white reflective paint scheme on the underside of the fuselage, replaced the 306th BMW B-47Bs.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: During 1954–55, MacDill AFB and the wing also served as a backdrop for part of the Paramount Pictures film "Strategic Air Command" starring James Stewart and June Allyson, a portion of which was filmed in and around both the 305th Bombardment Wing and 306th Bombardment Wing areas and their B-47 aircraft at MacDill AFB.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: As SAC's B-47s were being phased out of the inventory, inactivation planning of the 306th BMW also began. Phase down and transfer of B-47s was started, and by 15 February 1963, the wing was no longer capable of fulfilling its part of the strategic war plan. On 1 April 1963, SAC inactivated the 306th BMW at MacDill and reactivated it the same day at McCoy AFB, Florida as a B-52D Stratofortress and KC-135A Stratotanker heavy bombardment wing. McCoy AFB was the former Pinecastle AFB, having been renamed after Colonel Michael N. W. McCoy following his death in a B-47 mishap northwest of downtown Orlando, Florida, in 1957 while in command of the 321st Bombardment Wing at Pinecastle.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: On 2 January 1951, the 305th Bombardment Wing was activated at MacDill AFB and became the second SAC wing to receive the B-47 jet bomber. Operational squadrons of the wing were the 305th, 364th, 365th, and 366th Bombardment Squadrons. Initially training with Boeing B-29 and B-50 Superfortresses, the 305th also received its first Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter later in 1951. Following this, the group began training heavily in its new dual mission of strategic bombardment and aerial refueling.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The 809th Air Division (809th AD) took over host unit responsibilities for MacDill AFB on 16 June 1952. The 809th AD consisted of the 305th and 306th Bombardment Wings, which were both assigned to the base.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In June 1952, the 305th upgraded to the all-jet Boeing B-47B Stratojet. The wing continued strategic bombardment and refueling operations from MacDill and deployed overseas three times, once to England (September–December 1953) and twice to North Africa (November 1955 – January 1956 and January – March 1957), in keeping with its mission of global bombardment and air refueling operations. Two wing B-47s set speed records on 28 July 1953 when one flew from RCAF Goose Bay, Labrador, to RAF Fairford, England, in 4:14 hours and the other flew from Limestone AFB, Maine, to RAF Fairford in 4:45 hours.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In May 1959, the 305th Bomb Wing with B-47s was reassigned to Bunker Hill AFB, later renamed Grissom AFB, Indiana. The 809th AD inactivated on 1 June 1959 with the reassignment of the 305th Bomb Wing.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: Although control of MacDill AFB would pass from SAC to TAC in the early 1960s, SAC continued to maintain a periodic presence at MacDill in the form of dispersal alert operations of B-52 and KC-135 aircraft from other SAC bombardment wings, using the extant SAC Alert Facility at MacDill. These operations continued until the early 1980s.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: Air Defense Command (ADC) became a major tenant unit at MacDill in 1954 with the establishment of a mobile radar station on the base to support the permanent ADC radar network in the United States sited around the perimeter of the country. This deployment was projected to be operational by mid-1952. Funding, constant site changes, construction, and equipment delivery delayed deployment.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: This site at MacDill, designated as M-129 became operational on 1 August 1954 when the 660th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron was assigned to the base by the 35th Air Division. MacDill became the first operational mobile radar under the first phase of the program. The 660th ACWS initially used an AN/MPS-7 radar, and by 1958, MacDill also had AN/GPS-3 and AN/MPS-14 radars. During the following year, the AN/GPS-3 and AN/MPS-7 sets were replaced by AN/FPS-20A search and AN/FPS-6B height-finder sets.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: During 1961, MacDill AFB joined the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system, initially feeding data to Site DC-09 at Gunter AFB, Alabama. After joining SAGE, the squadron was redesignated as the 660th Radar Squadron (SAGE) on 1 March 1961. In 1961, an AN/FPS-7B assumed search duties and an additional height-finder radar was added in the form of an AN/FPS-26.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In 1963, an AN/FPS-90 height-finder radar replaced the AN/FPS-6B, and on 31 July 1963 the site was redesignated as NORAD ID Z-129. In addition to the main facility, Z-129 operated several unmanned gap filler sites:


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In 1966, the AN/FPS-26 was modified into an AN/FSS-7 submarine-launched ballistic missile detection and warning radar, part of the 14th Missile Warning Squadron. Around 1966, Site Z-129 became a joint-use facility with the Federal Aviation Administration and the search radar was modified to an AN/FPS-7E model. In 1968, ADC was redesignated as Aerospace Defense Command (ADC). In 1979, Site Z-129 came under Tactical Air Command (TAC) jurisdiction with the inactivation of ADC and the activation of Air Defense, Tactical Air Command, which was inactivated on 15 November 1980 and subsumed within TAC.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The FSS-7 (the final such system in the USAF inventory) remained in use for about a year after the host 660th Radar Squadron inactivated and was reassigned as Det 1, 20th Missile Warning Squadron. The ground-to-air transmitter/receiver site was retained until the Joint Surveillance System switch-over "circa" 1984, with the radios being maintained by the 1928th Communications Squadron of the Air Force Communications Command.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The first attempt to close MacDill AFB was made in 1960, when the impending phaseout of SAC's B-47 bombers caused it to be listed as surplus and slated for closure. However, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 highlighted the base's strategic location and its usefulness as a staging area. As a result, the cuts were stayed and the base repurposed for a tactical mission with fighter aircraft. In response to the crisis, the United States Strike Command was also established at MacDill as a crisis response force; it was one of the first unified commands, a command that draws manpower and equipment from all branches of the U.S. military.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In 1962, MacDill AFB was transferred from SAC to TAC. Bomber aircraft remained home-based at MacDill until the 306th Bombardment Wing's transfer to McCoy AFB, and SAC continued to maintain a tenant presence at MacDill through the 1980s, using their alert facility as a dispersal location for B-52 and KC-135 aircraft. But for all practical purposes, the 1960s marked MacDill's transition from a bomber-centric SAC base to a fighter-centric TAC installation. Under TAC, MacDill AFB remained a fighter base for almost 30 years, but other changes went on in the background.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: Upon MacDill AFB's transfer to TAC, the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing (12t TFW) was reactivated on 17 April 1962 and assigned to Ninth Air Force. Initially, its only operational squadron was the 559th Tactical Fighter Squadron. The mission of the 12th TFW was to be prepared for tactical worldwide deployments and operations. Until 1964, the wing flew obsolete Republic F-84F Thunderjets reclaimed from the Air National Guard.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In January 1964, the wing was chosen to be the first Air Force combat wing to convert to the new McDonnell-Douglas F-4C Phantom II. It was expanded as follows:


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The wing was soon involved in F-4C firepower demonstrations, exercises, and ultimately, at the Paris Air Show. The conflict in Southeast Asia was escalating, and throughout 1965, the wing supported Pacific Air Forces Contingency Operations by rotating combat squadrons quarterly to Naha Air Base in the Ryuku Islands. The 12th TFW began its permanent deployment to the first Air Force expeditionary airfield at Cam Ranh Bay Air Base, South Vietnam, on 6 November 1965.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The 12th TFW combat squadrons initially scheduled for deployment to Vietnam were the 555th, 557th, and 558th TFS. Ultimately, the 559th TFS took the place of the 555th when the squadron was diverted to a second TDY with the 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing at Naha Air Base, Okinawa, followed by a reassignment to the 8th TFW at Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand. Still later, the 555th was assigned to the 432d TRW at Udon Royal Thai Air Force Base.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: On 17 April 1962, the 15th Tactical Fighter Wing was activated at MacDill and assigned to 9th Air Force. Operational squadrons of the wing and squadron tail codes were:


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: Initially equipped with theF-84F Thunderjet, in 1964 the 15th TFW subsequently upgraded to the tail-coded McDonnell-Douglas F-4C Phantom II.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The mission of the 15th TFW was to conduct tactical fighter combat crew training. The wing participated in various exercises, operations, and readiness tests of TAC, and trained pilots and provided logistical support for the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing. Reorganized as a mission-capable unit at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, it returned afterwards to a training mission.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: With the departure of the 12th TFW in 1965, the 15th TFW became the host unit at MacDill with the unit's mission becoming a formal training unit for F-4 aircrews prior to their deployment to Southeast Asia. The wing deployed 16 F-4s to Seymour Johnson AFB, NC, during the USS "Pueblo" crisis in 1968.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In 1965, the wing deployed its 43rd, 45th, 46th, and 47th Tactical Fighter Squadrons to Southeast Asia, where they participated in the air defense commitment for the Philippines from Clark AB and flew combat missions from Cam Rahn Bay Air Base in South Vietnam and Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand. Members of the 45th TFS achieved the first U.S. Air Force aerial victories of the Vietnam War when they destroyed two MiGs on 10 July 1965. Captains Thomas S. Roberts, Ronald C. Anderson, Kenneth E. Holcombe, and Arthur C. Clark received credit for these kills.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: Beginning on 8 February 1969, the 13th Bombardment Squadron, Tactical, began Martin B-57G (Tail Code: FK) light bomber aircrew training at MacDill. The squadron was inactivated on 1 October 1970 and redesignated as the 4424th Combat Crew Training Squadron.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The 43rd TFS was reassigned to Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, on 4 January 1970 and the 15th TFW was inactivated on 1 October 1970, being replaced by the 1st Tactical Fighter Wing (1st TFW).


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, these units were deployed to MacDill AFB in addition to the assigned 12th and 15th TFWs in preparation for planned airstrikes on Cuba:


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The MacDill-based 12th and 15th Tactical Fighter Wings were subsequently designated as the 836th Air Division. The 836th AD was committed to provide 100 sorties in the planned first strike. They were to also press napalm and rocket attacks against surface-to-air missile sites at Mariel and Sagua La Grande, as well as the airfields at Santa Clara, Los Banos, and San Julien.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The 836th commitment for the second strike was to provide 64 sorties concentrating on the Los Banos airfield, two AAA sites, and the SSM launchers at San Diego de las Vegas and Pinar Del Rio. Finally, 42 aircraft were to strike Los Banos MiG base a third time and the Santa Clara MiG base, Sagua La Grande and Mariel SAM sites each a second time. The Cuban missile confrontation was ultimately resolved, and the air strikes, which an invasion of Cuba would have followed, were never launched.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: On 10 January 1970, the 1st Tactical Fighter Wing was reassigned without personnel or equipment to MacDill, the wing being transferred from Aerospace Defense Command (ADC) to TAC from Hamilton AFB, California. Initially, the 1st TFW operated with the same tactical fighter squadron designations used by the 15th TFW until 1 July 1971, when they were redesignated as:


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: At MacDill, the 1st TFW was a combat-coded operational tactical fighter wing, assuming operational commitments of the 15th TFW. The 1st also assumed an F-4 transitional and replacement pilot and weapons-systems officer training role in 1971, with some of its aircrews and equipment being deployed from time to time in various tactical exercises.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: On 1 July 1975, the 1st TFW and its operational squadrons were reassigned to Langley AFB, Virginia, without personnel or equipment for transition to the F-15 Eagle.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: On 30 June 1975, the 56th Tactical Fighter Wing became the new host unit at MacDill, being reassigned from Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand. Operational squadrons of the wing were:


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In 1975, the 56th TFW assumed the F-4E aircraft of the reassigned 1st TFW and all aircraft tail codes were changed to "MC".


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The wing conducted F-4E replacement training for pilots, weapon systems officers, and aircraft maintenance personnel and conducted a service test of TAC's "production oriented maintenance organization" (POMO) in 1976 and converted to the POMO concept in March 1977. In addition, the wing converted from the F-4E to F-4D between October 1977 and September 1978.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In 1980 and 1981, the wing upgraded to the Block 10 General Dynamics F-16A/B Fighting Falcon. With the arrival of the F-16, the wing designation was changed to 56th Tactical Training Wing (56 TTW) on 1 October 1981. The aircraft were upgraded to the more capable Block 30 and 42 F-16C/D in 1991.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In 1980, the new Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force was activated, and in 1983, it became United States Central Command. Also in 1987, United States Special Operations Command was activated at MacDill AFB, occupying the former facilities of USREDCOM.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: At Super Bowl XVIII and again at Super Bowl XXV, both played at Tampa Stadium, 56th Tactical Training Wing aircraft performed the flyover and missing man formation after the national anthem.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: On 1 October 1991, the 56th TTW was redesignated as the 56th Fighter Wing (56 FW). Following inactivation of TAC, the 56 FW was reassigned to the newly established Air Combat Command (ACC) on 1 June 1992.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: By the early 1990s and the end of the Cold War, the U.S. was looking to downsize the military and eliminate a large number of bases in the United States as a cost-savings measure. MacDill AFB figured prominently in this; the Tampa area had seen substantial increases in commercial air traffic at the two international airports within 10 nautical miles of MacDill, creating hazardous conditions for F-16 training, and the noise associated with the high-performance jets was deemed unsuitable for high-density residential areas such as those around MacDill. As a result, the 1991 Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) ordered that all flight-line activities cease at MacDill AFB by 1993.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: As a result of the BRAC decision, the F-16 training mission and the 56th Fighter Wing were moved without personnel or equipment to Luke Air Force Base, outside of Phoenix, Arizona, and was reassigned to Air Education and Training Command. The wing's F-16 aircraft were transferred to other Regular U.S. Air Force, Air Force Reserve Command, and Air National Guard wings and squadrons.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In August 1992, just prior to the landfall of Hurricane Andrew in southern Florida, the 31st Fighter Wing (31 FW) and the Air Force Reserve's 482d Fighter Wing, both based at Homestead AFB, executed an emergency hurricane evacuation of all of their flyable F-16C and F-16D aircraft, with the bulk of those aircraft temporarily staging at MacDill. Given the level of destruction at Homestead AFB, these fighter aircraft remained at MacDill for several months thereafter.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In 1993, with the help of local Representative Bill Young (R-FL), the flight-line closure order for MacDill was rescinded and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration transferred from their former aircraft operations center at Miami International Airport to Hangar 5 at MacDill AFB to use the base and its flight line as their new home station for weather reconnaissance and research flights.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: On 1 January 1994, the Air Combat Command's 6th Air Base Wing (6 ABW) stood up at MacDill AFB to operate the base and provide support services for the large and growing number of tenant units, as well as to provide services for transient air units. Later that year, the base served as the primary staging facility for Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: This staging was considered evidence of the quality and usefulness of the MacDill runway and flight line, even in light of the high civilian air traffic levels in the Tampa Bay area from nearby Tampa International Airport, St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, and Peter O. Knight Airport. With further congressional prodding and lobbying, MacDill was chosen as the site for a KC-135 air refueling mission. With the arrival of 12 KC-135R tankers and the 91st Air Refueling Squadron from Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, the 6 ABW was renamed the 6th Air Refueling Wing (6 ARW) on 1 October 1996 and transferred from ACC to the Air Mobility Command (AMC).


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In January 2001, the 310th Airlift Squadron (310 AS) was activated at the base, flying the CT-43A and EC-135Y, the former aircraft providing executive transport to the commander of United States Southern Command in Miami and the latter aircraft providing executive transport and airborne command post capabilities to the commanders of USCENTCOM and USSOCOM at MacDill. New C-37A aircraft were delivered starting in 2001, and the CT-43 and EC-135s were subsequently removed from service. The 310th's primary mission is dedicated airlift support for the commanders of USCENTCOM, USSOCOM, and USSOUTHCOM. With the addition of the 310 AS, the wing was given its current designation as the 6th Air Mobility Wing (6 AMW).


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In April 2008, pursuant to BRAC action, the Air Force Reserve Command's 927th Air Refueling Wing relocated from Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Michigan, to MacDill AFB, where it became an associate wing to the 6 AMW, also flying KC-135R aircraft.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In late 2003/early 2004, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command vacated its Tampa "rear headquarters" at MacDill AFB, a complex that was established in the early 1990s following the first Gulf War and commanded by a flag officer, either an upper half or lower half rear admiral concurrently assigned as the USNAVCENT/US 5th Fleet Deputy Commander (DEPCOMUSNAVCENT/DEPCOMFIFTHFLT), and his staff when they were not forward deployed to the Persian Gulf region. In vacating the MacDill AFB facility, all USNAVCENT staff activities were consolidated at COMUSNAVCENT/COMFIFTHFLT headquarters in Manama, Bahrain.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: NAVCENT's facility at MacDill AFB was subsequently turned over to the Deputy Commander, U.S. Marine Forces Central Command (DEPCOMUSMARCENT), and his staff. It would later become the overall Headquarters, U.S. Marine Forces Central Command, while the Commanding General for MARCENT (COMUSMARCENT) would remain a dual-hatted function of the Commanding General, I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) at Camp Pendleton, California. From late 2003 until 2012, the Commanding General remained in California, while his MARCENT staff primarily resided at MacDill AFB with an additional forward element at Naval Support Activity Bahrain in Manama, Bahrain. In 2012, the COMUSMARCENT and CG I MEF billets were broken into separate billets and COMUSMARCENT took up full-time residency in MARCENT's headquarters facility at MacDill AFB, upgrading the facility to a 3-star headquarters.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: Also in late 2004/early 2005, Naval Reserve Center Tampa vacated its obsolescent waterfront location in downtown Tampa, consolidated with the former Naval Reserve Center St. Petersburg adjacent to Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, and relocated to a newly constructed facility on the south side of MacDill AFB. In 2006, this facility was renamed Navy Operational Support Center Tampa, concurrent with the shift in name of the U.S. Naval Reserve to the U.S. Navy Reserve and its greater integration into the Fleet and shore establishment of the Regular Navy. Under the command of an active duty full-time support (FTS) U.S. Navy Captain, NOSC Tampa provides administrative support for all Navy Reserve personnel assigned to both local independent Navy Reserve units at NOSC Tampa and to the various joint and service commands and activities at MacDill AFB, CGAS Clearwater and Marine Corps Reserve Center Tampa.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The Joint Communications Support Element (JCSE) is a joint command headquartered at MacDill AFB that deploys to provide en route, early entry, scalable command, control, communications and computer (C4) support to the geographical Unified Combatant Commands, the U.S. Special Operations Command, and other military commands and U.S. Government agencies as directed. On order, JCSE provides additional C4 services within 72 hours to support larger Commander, Joint Task Force/Commander, Joint Special Operations Task Force (CJTF/CJSOTF) headquarters across the full spectrum of operations. JCSE is commanded by a U.S. Army Colonel and consists of a Headquarters Support Squadron (HSS), a Communications Support Detachment (CSD), three active-duty joint communications squadrons: the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Joint Communications Squadrons, and the 4th Joint Communications Squadron, the 4th being a U.S. Army Reserve squadron. All are located on the JCSE compound at MacDill AFB. JCSE also includes two additional joint communications support squadrons from the Air National Guard: the 224th Joint Communications Support Squadron (224 JCSS) of the Georgia Air National Guard in Brunswick, Georgia, and the 290th Joint Communications Support Squadron (290 JCSS) of the Florida Air National Guard located in its own compound separate from JCSE at MacDill AFB.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: As mentioned above, the 290th Joint Communications Support Squadron (290 JCSS) of the Florida Air National Guard is another tenant unit at MacDill AFB. The 290 JCSS provides Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff-directed globally deployable, en route, and early entry communications support to geographic combatant commands, the United States Special Operations Command, individual U.S. armed services, other Department of Defense activities and combat support agencies, other U.S. Government agencies, and the State of Florida. The squadron deploys modular, scalable support to large Joint and Combined War-fighting Command and Control (C2) headquarters nodes. Under its Title 10 USC "Federal" mission, the 290 JCSS is associated with the U.S. Transportation Command's Joint Enabling Capabilities Command (JECC) and the Joint Communications Support Element (JCSE). As a USAF organization, the 290 JCSS is operationally gained by the Air Mobility Command (AMC). Under its Title 32 USC "state" mission, the squadron reports to the Governor of Florida via the Assistant Adjutant General for Air (ATAG-Air) and The Adjutant General (TAG) of the Florida National Guard./


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The newest tenant command at MacDill AFB is the 598th Range Squadron (598 RANS), an Air Combat Command (ACC) unit that was activated at the MacDill AFB Auxiliary Field at Avon Park Air Force Range, Florida on 22 September 2015. The 598 RANS replaced Detachment 1, 23d Fighter Group, which had previously managed the range and additional facilities at MacDill AFB. The 598 RANS operates both the Avon Park Air Force Range (APAFR) and the 23rd Wing Deployed Unit Complex (DUC) located at MacDill AFB. The DUC is a separate flight line facility on the west side of MacDill AFB for transient military flight crews, maintenance crews and fighter and attack aircraft utilizing the APAFR. This permits visiting squadrons to have ready access to APAFR while concurrently taking advantage of the more robust billeting, messing and aircraft maintenance support capabilities at MacDill AFB. This combination of facilities between MacDill AFB and the APAFR provides extensive, diversified and convenient training airspace and ranges with unique training capabilities for military air, ground and air-to-ground training. The squadron's higher headquarters, the 23d Fighter Group, is located at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In September 2019, the 310th Airlift squadron inactivated. The squadron had operated three C-37A Gulfstream V and provided global special assignment airlift missions (SAAM) in support of the commanders of the unified combatant commands. As a result, with its primary mission now aerial refueling, the 6th Air Mobility Wing was re-designated as the 6th Air Refueling Wing.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The flyover and Missing man formations for Super Bowl XXV, Super Bowl XXXV and Super Bowl XLIII, played at Raymond James Stadium, came from KC-135 aircraft from MacDill's 6th Air Mobility Wing, with additional flyovers by a B-2 Spirit from the 509th Bomb Wing and F-22 Raptor aircraft from the 325th Fighter Wing. The former flyover was the first Super Bowl flyover to be telecast in high definition.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In early 2011, several news outlets, primarily in the United Kingdom, reported that Ntrepid, a California software and hardware company, had been awarded a $2.76 million U.S. government contract to create false online personas to counter the threat of terrorism and could possibly run their operation from MacDill AFB. These reports were never confirmed or acknowledged by the U.S. military.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In its 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Recommendations, DoD recommended to realign Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota. It would distribute the 319th Air Refueling Wing's KC-135R aircraft to the 6th Air Mobility Wing (6 AMW) at MacDill AFB, FL (four aircraft) and several other installations, increasing the number of KC-135R aircraft assigned to the 6 AMW from twelve to sixteen aircraft . Concurrent with this BRAC decision, the 6 AMW would also host a Reserve association with the Air Mobility Command-gained 927th Air Refueling Wing (927 ARW) of the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC), the latter of which would be realigned and relocated from Selfridge ANGB, Michigan to MacDill AFB. Under the Reserve Associate arrangement, both the 6 AMW and the 927 ARW would share the same KC-135R aircraft, while the 927 ARW would turn over their KC-135R aircraft to the 127th Wing (127 WG) of the Michigan Air National Guard at Selfridge ANGB. The 927 ARW began relocation from Selfridge ANGB to MacDill AFB in 2007 and formally established itself at MacDill in April 2008.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: Long range USAF plans in the 2015 defense budget called for MacDill AFB to add eight additional KC-135R aircraft to its extant sixteen KC-135Rs in FY2018. The 6 AMW would also increase manning by approximately 300 personnel. These additional KC-135R aircraft would come from other Air Force, Air Force Reserve Command and Air National Guard units transitioning to the KC-46A Pegasus aerial refueling aircraft and the timeline would be contingent on those other units completing their transition and achieving operational capability with the KC-46.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: Until mid-2017, MacDill AFB also hosted the Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Commissioned officers of the NOAA Corps and NOAA civil servants fly "Hurricane Hunter" missions in NOAA's WP-3D Orion and Gulfstream IV aircraft, as well as other research missions in these and other assigned fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: With the anticipated increase in KC-135R aircraft and the need for additional maintenance hangar space, the Air Force informed NOAA in 2016 that they would no longer be able to host the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center, its aircraft, and the 110 NOAA personnel in Hangar 5 and its adjacent operations building at MacDill AFB. In May 2017, NOAA began relocation to a new facility at Lakeland Linder International Airport, northeast of MacDill AFB, completing same in June 2017.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: MacDill historically hosted an annual air show and "open house" enjoyed by thousands of spectators each year. However, there were no shows in 2002 and 2003 due to security concerns following the attacks on the United States of 11 September 2001 and the initiation of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. The 2006 show was also canceled due to security concerns on base, but was reinstated in 2008. It was cancelled again in 2013 due to defense budget constraints, but was reinstated again in 2014 as a biennial event. AirFest 2016 was the first-ever airshow to feature a live webcast of the performers, including the headline act of the United States Air Force Thunderbirds.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The 6th Air Refueling Wing (6 ARW) at MacDill AFB operates 24 KC-135R Stratotankers providing day-to-day mission support to more than 3,000 personnel in its immediate command, along with more than 50 mission partners comprising over 12,000 additional personnel, to include the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM), United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), United States Marine Forces Central Command (USMARCENT), and United States Special Operations Command Central (USSOCCENT).


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The 6 ARW also has a collocated Air Force Reserve "Associate" wing at MacDill, the 927th Air Refueling Wing (927 ARW) of the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC). The 6 ARW and the 927 ARW operate and share the same assigned KC-135R Stratotanker aircraft.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The 6 AMW's 3,000-person force organized into four groups, in addition to the wing commander's immediate staff.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: Approximately 15,000 people work at MacDill Air Force Base, with a significant number of military personnel and their families living on base in military housing, while remaining service-members and military families live off base in the Tampa Bay area. MacDill AFB is a significant contributor to Tampa's economy and the city is very supportive of the military community. In 2001 and 2003, the Tampa Bay area was awarded the Abilene Trophy, which annually honors the most supportive Air Force city in Air Mobility Command.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The base has a large visitor lodging facility known as the MacDill Inn, a DECA commissary, an AAFES base exchange, and numerous Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) activities such as the Surf's Edge all ranks club, a base swimming pool, movie theater, marina, the Raccoon Creek Family Camp for recreational vehicles, the SeaScapes Beach House and the Bay Palms Golf Course.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: In December 2021, the Air Force announced that the 6th Air Refueling Wing would re-equip with 24 of the new Boeing KC-46 Pegasus aerial refueling aircraft in the coming years.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The 927 ARW is an associate unit of the 6th Air Refueling Wing of the Air Mobility Command (AMC), with both wings sharing and flying the same Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker aircraft, while ground support personnel augment their active duty counterparts in the 6 AMW. The 927 ARW is part of the 4th Air Force (4 AF) of Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC). If mobilized to active duty, the wing is operationally-gained by Air Mobility Command (AMC). The 927 ARW has approximately 1,000 personnel consisting of part-time Traditional Reservists (TR) and full-time Air Reserve Technicians (ART) and Active Guard and Reserve (AGR).


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: The 927 ARW is commanded by Colonel Douglas Stouffer and the wing's Command Chief Master Sergeant is CMSgt Michael Klausutis.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: MacDill has 28 "mission partners" (tenant units) according to the official MacDill AFB website. Among these are:


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: Previously designated as Detachment 1 of the 23rd Wing (23 WG) until August 2014 and Det 1 of the 23d Fighter Group (23 FG) until August 2015, the 598 RANS is unique among MacDill AFB's tenant units in that it operates both (1) the Deployed Unit Complex (DUC) at MacDill AFB, providing a separate flight line facility and support infrastructure for detachments of USAF, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps (to include Reserve and Air National Guard) and NATO/Allied fighter, attack and special operations aircraft utilizing the nearby Avon Park Air Force Range (APAFR) facility, and (2) operates and maintains the entire 20,000 square mile APAFR facility approximately 65 miles east of MacDill AFB. An Air Combat Command (ACC) organization, the 598 RANS reports to the Commander, 23d Fighter Group, at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: MacDill AFB also supports other Active Component and Reserve Component military activities and personnel of the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Coast Guard in the West Central Florida/Tampa Bay Region, as well as the large military retiree community in the Tampa Bay area and surrounding environs.


title: MacDill Air Force Base

text: Units marked GSU are Geographically Separate Units, which although based at MacDill, are subordinate to a parent unit based at another location.


title: Elliott from Earth

text: Elliott from Earth is an animated television series created by Guillaume Cassuto, Mic Graves and Tony Hull for Cartoon Network. Produced by Cartoon Network Studios Europe, it premiered in the United Kingdom on March 6, 2021. In the United States, it aired from March 29 to April 9, 2021.


title: Elliott from Earth

text: Eleven-year-old Elliott and his geologist mother Frankie travel around looking for meteorites on Earth, so that Frankie can further study a 65-million-year-old rock which appears to be from space but lacks a fusion crust. One night, the two accidentally power up the rock, revealing it to be alien technology that can turn into a transport sphere and launch into space. The sphere transports them to another side of the Universe, where they end up on a large space station called the Centrium. There, they meet a dinosaur who names himself Mo, and end up losing the rock in the wilderness of a biosphere. The three of them investigate their new environment and meet its alien inhabitants, eventually making their way into the city on the Centrium where they find a new home for themselves. In Centrium City, the trio continues to get accustomed to the ways of life there and explore the wonders of their new home, while Frankie continues her search for answers about the mysterious rock.


title: Elliott from Earth

text: The show's pitch was greenlit for 20 episodes by Cartoon Network Studios Europe. Production started in September 2018, consisting mostly of the production team from Cartoon Network's "The Amazing World of Gumball". The show aired on March 29, 2021, consisting of sixteen 11-minute episodes. In October 2019, the series creator and original showrunner Guillaume Cassuto left the series due to parting ways with Cartoon Network.


title: Elliott from Earth

text: On August 17, 2022, it was announced that the HBO Max would be removing several series, including "Elliott from Earth".


title: Elliott from Earth

text: Every episode was directed by Rhys Byfield and Mikey Please, with Mic Graves and Tony Hull serving as supervising directors.


title: Elliott from Earth

text: In the second part of the four-part episode "Wednesday", Frankie, one of the main protagonists of the series, mentions that she and her unnamed wife gave birth to Elliott, revealing Frankie as a lesbian.


title: Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley

text: Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley was a professional boxing match between YouTuber Jake Paul and mixed martial artist Tyron Woodley. The bout took place on August 29, 2021, at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio.


title: Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley

text: It was announced on May 20, 2021, that YouTuber-turned-professional boxer Jake Paul had signed a promotional deal with American television network Showtime, an agreement that would see his next bout aired on the network. His fight against former UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley was announced on July 12, 2021, with the venue and date set to be in Paul's hometown of Cleveland on August 29, 2021.


title: Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley

text: Prior to the bout, Paul had compiled a record of 3–0 (3 KOs) as a professional boxer, and was coming off a first-round technical knockout victory on April 17, 2021 against former mixed martial artist Ben Askren, who similar to Woodley had also previously competed in the UFC. For his part, Woodley made his debut as a professional boxer against Paul, and had most recently competed as a mixed martial artist on March 27, 2021, at UFC 260, when he suffered a first-round submission defeat against Vicente Luque. The defeat against Luque was Woodley's fourth consecutive loss as a mixed martial artist.


title: Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley

text: According to the Ohio State Athletic Commission, both Paul and Woodley earned an official purse of $2,000,000. These figures don't include any additional bonuses or PPV profits.


title: Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley

text: After the match, Jake Paul made a bet with Woodley that if he got the tattoo, they would have a rematch, Woodley later got the tattoo on his middle finger, and Jake responded with a piece of paper saying "I Love You Too." However, Paul instead called out Tommy Fury to a fight.


title: Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley

text: On October 29, 2021, it was announced that Jake was going to fight Tommy Fury. However, on December 6, it was announced that Fury pulled out due to a rib injury, and Tyron Woodley stepped in his place for a rematch.


title: V-weapons

text: V-weapons, known in original German as (, German: "retaliatory weapons", "reprisal weapons"), were a particular set of long-range artillery weapons designed for strategic bombing during World War II, particularly strategic bombing and/or aerial bombing of cities. They were the V-1, a pulsejet-powered cruise missile; the V-2, a liquid-fueled ballistic missile (often referred to as V1 and V2); and the V-3 cannon. All of these weapons were intended for use in a military campaign against Britain, though only the V-1 and V-2 were so used in a campaign conducted 1944–45. After the invasion of Europe by the Allies, these weapons were also employed against targets on the mainland of Europe, mainly France and Belgium. Strategic bombing with V-weapons killed approximately 18,000 people, mostly civilians. The cities of London, Antwerp and Liège were the main targets.


title: V-weapons

text: As early as 28 June 1940, a strategic bombing rationale had been advanced for the A4 (V-2 rocket) being developed at a meeting between Army Ordnance Chief Emil Leeb and Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht, Walther von Brauchitsch. Following the relative failure of the Baedeker Raids on Britain in 1942, development of both flying bomb and rocket accelerated, with Britain designated as the target. On 29 September 1943, Albert Speer publicly promised retribution against the mass bombing of German cities by a "secret weapon". Then the official 24 June 1944 Reich Propaganda Ministry announcement of the "Vergeltungswaffe 1" guided missile implied that there would be another such weapon. After the first operational A-4 launch in September 1944, the rocket was renamed the V-2. (although no one knows exactly who gave it this name). However, the V-2 operations manual distributed to firing batteries continued to use the A-4 name for the rocket.


title: V-weapons

text: Allen Dulles, head of the American secret service OSS in Switzerland, was in contact with the Austrian resistance group around the priest Heinrich Maier from 1943 onwards. Through this Dulles received crucial information and plans about Peenemünde, the V-1 and the V-2 rocket.


title: V-weapons

text: Beginning in October 1943, launch sites for the V-1 were constructed in Northern France, along the coast from Calais to Le Havre. Aerial bombing attacks on these sites by the Allied airforce were only partially successful, and by June 1944 they were ready for action. Prompted by the Normandy Landings of 6 June, in the early morning of 13 June 1944, the first V-1 flying bomb attack was carried out on London. Ten missiles were launched, of which four reached England. The first of these impacted near Swanscombe, causing no casualties. At Bethnal Green, however, a bridge was destroyed, six people killed and nine injured. After the attacks became sustained at a rate of about 100 a day. With the first attack the British put their pre-planned Operation Diver (after their codename "Diver" used for the V-1) into action.


title: V-weapons

text: The buzzing sound of the V-1's pulse jet engine was likened by some to "a motor cycle in bad running order". As it reached its target and dived, there would be a distinct sound of the propulsion unit spluttering and cutting out; the eerie hush before impact which followed was quite terrifying, according to observers. The brief interval of silence before detonation was also a warning to seek shelter (later V-1s were corrected to have the originally intended power dive). At least one business in London advertised how quickly a patron could access a nearby shelter. Despite this, the cloudy and rainy conditions of June and July aided the effectiveness of the weapon, and casualties were high. By late August a million and a half people had left London, and the rate of work production was affected. By the late summer and autumn, however, increasingly effective countermeasures against the V-1 were taken, and people started returning to London.


title: V-weapons

text: A total of 9,251 V-1s were fired at targets in Britain, with the vast majority aimed at London; 2,515 reached the city, killing 6,184 civilians and injuring 17,981. Croydon to the south, on the flight path of the V-1s, suffered severely, taking 142 hits.


title: V-weapons

text: V-2 rocket launching sites were set up by the Germans around The Hague in the Netherlands on 6 September 1944. The first was launched from here against London on 8 September 1944 and took an estimated 5 minutes to fly the from the Hague to London, where it struck at 6:43pm on 8 September on Chiswick, causing 13 casualties. As the V-2 explosions came without warning, the government initially attempted to conceal their cause by blaming them on defective gas mains. However, the public was not fooled and soon began sardonically referring to the V-2s as "Flying gas pipes".


title: V-weapons

text: By October the offensive became sustained. A particularly devastating strike was on 25 November 1944, when a V-2 exploded at the Woolworth's store in New Cross Road, killing 168 people and seriously injuring 121. Intercepting the supersonic V-2 missiles in flight proved virtually impossible, and other countermeasures, such as bombing the launch sites, were fairly ineffectual. Sustained bombardment continued until March 1945. The final missiles arrived on 27 March 1945, with one of them killing 134 people and injuring 49 when it hit a block of flats in Stepney.


title: V-weapons

text: 1,115 V-2s were fired at the United Kingdom. The vast majority of them were aimed at London, though about 40 targeted (and missed) Norwich. They killed an estimated 2,754 people in London, with another 6,523 injured. A further 2,917 service personnel were killed as a result of the V-weapon campaign. Since the V-2 was supersonic and could not be heard (and was rarely seen) as it approached the target, its psychological effect "suffered in comparison to the V-1".


title: V-weapons

text: The V-weapon offensive ended in March 1945, with the last V-2 landing in Kent on March 27, and the last enemy-action incident of any kind on British soil occurred at 09:00 on 29 March 1945 when a V-1 struck a Hertfordshire field. In terms of casualties, their effects had been less than their inventors hoped or their victims feared, though the damage to property was extensive, with 20,000 houses a day being damaged at the height of the campaign, causing a massive housing crisis in south-east England in late 1944 and early 1945.


title: V-weapons

text: The existential horror of the V-2 attack on London is the theme of Thomas Pynchon's novel "Gravity's Rainbow".


title: V-weapons

text: V-2s were launched against Antwerp and Liège in Belgium; the attack on Antwerp was to prevent use of the Port of Antwerp which was essential for Allied logistics. In the six months following liberation in September 1944, Belgian towns were targeted by German V-weapons. A total of 2,342 V-weapons (mostly of the more advanced V-2 type) fell in a radius around Antwerp alone. A post-war SHAEF report estimated V-Bombs had been responsible for killing 5,000 people and injuring a further 21,000, mostly in the cities of Antwerp and Liège.


title: V-weapons

text: On 17 March 1945 eleven V-2 rockets were fired at the Ludendorf rail bridge across the Rhine at Remagen on Hitler's orders (see Battle of Remagen). This was the only time they were fired at a tactical target or at a target in Germany; the nearest hit to the target was away; and one hit Cologne, to the north. The General Staff were against their use as they were inaccurate and could kill German citizens and troops, but Hitler was desperate to destroy the Allied bridgehead across the Rhine. They were launched by Batterie SS Abt. 500 at Hellendoorn in the Netherlands, about to the north.


title: V-weapons

text: The V-3 cannon, also designed to fire on London, was never used for this purpose due to Allied attacks on the launch facilities, especially the fortress of Mimoyecques, and the offensive in northern Europe in 1944, overrunning the launch sites. Consequently, its use was diverted, in the winter of 1944, to bombard Luxembourg, with minimal results.


title: ASAP Bari

text: Jabari Shelton (born December 23, 1991 in Harlem, New York), better known as ASAP Bari (stylized as A$AP Bari) or Young Lord, is an American streetwear designer, entrepreneur, and convicted sex offender. He is known as a co-founder of the New York hip-hop collective ASAP Mob, which he formed in 2006 alongside ASAP Yams, ASAP Kham and ASAP Illz. He is also a co-founder of the streetwear clothing label VLONE.


title: ASAP Bari

text: In 2006, Shelton founded the rap collective A$AP Mob alongside A$AP Yams, A$AP Kham and A$AP Illz. Shelton does not rap but performs creative functions and networks with other individuals for the collective. Shelton was the one who allegedly introduced rapper A$AP Rocky to A$AP Yams. While establishing himself, his influences in the rap industry were Sean Combs and Dame Dash, two fellow Harlemites.


title: ASAP Bari

text: Following the success of ASAP Mob, fellow member Kamoni Chandler, also known as A$AP K, founded the streetwear label VLONE in 2011. VLONE Hoodies and Vlone Shirt quickly became famous in the streets of Harlem. Shelton, who had previously been the head of A$AP Rocky's merchandise during his tours, worked together with Chandler on the brand. After a falling out Chandler left the brand and Shelton took over. Shelton brought in Edison Chen of CLOT, who handles the design work of the label. He stated in an interview with "Mass Appeal" that much of his influence came from trying on and stealing clothes with his friends while living in Harlem, feeling the fabrics of high-value brands. Vlone is more than just a brand, it is a style and culture which means "You live alone and you die alone".


title: ASAP Bari

text: In 2014, VLONE debuted its first collection. VLONE encountered a partnership with Nike in 2017; On July 31, a Nike spokesman confirmed that the Vlone deal with Shelton was terminated following the release of a video of him sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room.


title: ASAP Bari

text: In 2020, VLONE started collaborating with artists, pushing out merchandise for Juice WRLD, NBA Youngboy, The Weeknd, Nav, and more artists.


title: ASAP Bari

text: In 2012, he was listed in "Complex"'s "25 Under 25: The Young Leaders of Style" article for his streetwear style contributions.


title: ASAP Bari

text: Following rape allegations surrounding stylist and model Ian Connor, on 23 June 2016 Shelton punched Connor as he was leaving the Colette store in Paris, with Shelton further confronting Connor on Twitter surrounding the allegation, and later escalated to Ian Connor fighting A$AP Bari.


title: ASAP Bari

text: On July 12, 2017, a video emerged alleging sexual assault by Shelton against a nude woman. The video showed Shelton bursting into a hotel room she was sleeping in yelling "You fucked my assistant, now you are going to fuck with me", followed up by "You better suck my cock now, bitch!" She said "no", and then Shelton pulled blankets and exposed her nude body to about 10 other men of ASAP Mob, and he followed her into the bathroom. She begged him to stop harassing her and began crying in fear. She was then allegedly thrown out of the room in the nude with Bari smacking her in the buttocks; she had the hotel manager call the police. Shelton claimed on Twitter that the video was "fake", though he later stated that the video was between "friends" and that they had "resolved this issue amicably among all parties as adults".


title: ASAP Bari

text: In November 2017, the woman sued Shelton for over $1 million stating she was sexually assaulted by him.


title: ASAP Bari

text: On 18 May 2018, Shelton was arrested at Heathrow Airport in London on charges of sexual assault related to the incident. On 3 January 2019, Shelton pleaded guilty to the 2017 sexual assault in London. He avoided a possible prison sentence by paying the victim £2,000.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: A traveller's cheque is a medium of exchange that can be used in place of hard currency. They can be denominated in one of a number of major world currencies and are preprinted, fixed-amount cheques designed to allow the person signing it to make an unconditional payment to someone else as a result of having paid the issuer for that privilege.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: They were generally used by people on vacation in foreign countries instead of cash, as many businesses used to accept traveller's cheques as currency. The incentive for merchants and other parties to accept them lies in the fact that as long as the original signature (which the buyer is supposed to place on the cheque in ink as soon as they receive the cheque) and the signature made at the time the cheque is used are the same, the cheque's issuer will unconditionally guarantee payment of the face amount even if the cheque was fraudulently issued, stolen, or lost. This means that a traveller's cheque can never 'bounce' unless the issuer goes bankrupt or out of business. If a traveller's cheque were lost or stolen, it could be replaced by the issuing financial institution.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: The financial institutions issuing traveller's cheques earn income in a number of ways. Firstly, they charge a fee on sale of such cheques. In addition, they can earn interest for the period that the cheques are uncashed, while not paying any interest to the cheque holder, making them effectively interest-free loans. Also, the foreign exchange rate commonly used on traveller's cheques (generally based on rates applicable at the time of purchase) is less favourable compared to other forms of obtaining foreign currency, especially those on credit card transactions (which use a rate applicable at the transaction date). In addition, the setup cost and the cost of issuing and processing traveller's cheques is much higher than for credit card transactions. The cheque issuer carries the exchange rate risk, and normally pays a fee to hedge against the risk.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: Their use has been in decline since the 1990s, when a variety of more convenient alternatives, such as credit cards, debit cards, pre-paid currency cards, and automated teller machines, became more widely available and easier for travellers to use. Also, as interest rates sharply declined in many developed countries in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, travellers's cheques became much less profitable to issue and thus many issuers scaled back advertising and promoting their use while others stopped selling them altogether. Traveller's cheques are no longer widely accepted and cannot easily be cashed, even at the banks that issued them. The alternatives to traveller's cheques are generally cheaper and more flexible. Travel money cards, for instance, provide features similar to traveller's cheques but offer greater ease and flexibility.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: Legally, the parties to traveller's cheque transactions are as follows. The organization that produces a traveller's cheque is the "obligor" or "issuer". The bank or other place that sells it is the "agent" of the issuer. The natural person who buys the cheque is the "purchaser". The entity to whom the purchaser hands the cheque in payment for goods or services is the "payee" or "merchant". For purposes of clearance, the obligor is both "maker" and "drawee".


title: Traveller's cheque

text: Traveller's cheques were first issued on 1 January 1772 by the London Credit Exchange Company for use in 90 European cities, and in 1874, Thomas Cook was issuing "circular notes" that operated in the manner of traveller's cheques.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: American Express developed a large-scale international traveller's cheque system in 1891, to supersede the traditional letters of credit. It is still the largest issuer of traveller's cheques today by volume. American Express's introduction of traveller's cheques is traditionally attributed to employee Marcellus Flemming Berry, after company president J. C. Fargo had problems in smaller European cities obtaining funds with a letter of credit.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: Between the 1850s and the 1990s, traveller's cheques became one of the main ways that people took money on vacation for use in foreign countries without the risks associated with carrying large amounts of cash.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: Several brands of traveller's cheques have been marketed; the most familiar of those were Thomas Cook Group, Bank of America and American Express.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: The convenience and wider acceptance of such alternatives as credit and debit cards and the wider availability of ATMs has led to a significant decline in the use of traveller's cheques since the 1990s. In addition, security concerns of retailers has led to many businesses ceasing to accept them, in turn making them less attractive to travellers. This has led to complaints about the difficulty that holders have in using them. In much of Europe and Asia, traveller's cheques are no longer widely accepted and cannot be easily cashed, even at the banks that issued them.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: Since traveller's cheques do not earn interest, one of the main incentives financial institutions have to sell traveller's cheques is that they effectively represent an interest-free loan from the purchaser to the seller. The sustained decline in interest rates in most of the developed world since the early-to-mid 1990s has substantially reduced the profitability of traveller's cheques for their issuers. Financial institutions have responded to this development by charging new fees for traveller's cheques, increasing existing fees, or by exiting the business altogether.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: Travellers' cheques are sold by banks and agencies to customers for use at a later time. Upon obtaining custody of a purchased supply of traveller's cheques, the purchaser immediately signs each cheque. The purchaser also receives a receipt and other documentation that should be kept in a safe place other than where they carry the cheques. Traveller's cheques can usually be replaced if lost or stolen, assuming the owner still has the receipt issued with the purchase of the cheques showing the serial numbers allocated.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: To cash a traveller's cheque to make a purchase, the purchaser would, in the presence of the payee, date and countersign the cheque in the indicated space.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: Traveller's cheques are available in several currencies such as US dollars, Canadian dollars, pounds sterling, Japanese yen, Chinese yuan and euros; denominations usually being 20, 50, or 100 (× 100 for yen) of whatever currency, and are usually sold in pads of five or ten cheques, e.g., 5 × €20 for €100. Traveller's cheques do not expire, so unused cheques can be kept by the purchaser to spend at any time in the future. The purchaser of a supply of traveller's cheques effectively gives an interest-free loan to the issuer, which is why it is common for banks to sell them "commission free" to their customers. The commission, where it is charged, is usually 1–2% of the total face value sold.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: A payee receiving a traveller's cheque would follow its normal procedures for depositing cheques into its bank account: usually, endorsement by stamp or signature and listing the cheque and its amount on the deposit slip. The bank account will be credited with the amount of the cheque as with any other negotiable item submitted for clearance.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: In the United States, if the payee is equipped to process cheques electronically at point of sale ("see:" Check 21 Act), they would still take custody of the cheque and submit it to a financial institution, particularly to avoid any confusion on the part of the purchaser.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: However, this feature has also created a black market where fraudsters buy traveller's cheques, sell them at 50% of their value to other people (such as travellers) and falsely report their traveller's cheque stolen with the company from which the cheque was obtained. As such, the fraudster gets back the value of the traveller's cheque and also makes 50% of the value as profit.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: The widespread problem of counterfeit traveller's cheques has caused a number of businesses to no longer accept them or to impose stringent safeguards when they are used. It is a reasonable security procedure for the payee to ask to inspect the purchaser's picture ID; a driver's license or passport should suffice, and doing so would most usefully be towards the end of comparing the purchaser's signature on the ID with those on the cheque. The best first step, however, that can be taken by any payee who has concerns about the validity of any traveller's cheque, is to contact the issuer directly; a negative finding by a third-party cheque verification service based on an ID cheque may merely indicate that the service has no record about the purchaser (to be expected, practically by definition, of many travellers), or at worst that they have been deemed incompetent to manage a personal chequing account (which would have no bearing on the validity of a traveller's cheque).


title: Traveller's cheque

text: Some purchasers have found the process of filing a claim for lost or stolen cheques is cumbersome, and have been left without recourse after their cheques were lost or stolen.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: The widespread acceptance of credit cards and debit cards around the world starting in the 1980s and 1990s significantly replaced the use of traveller's cheques for paying for things on vacation.


title: Traveller's cheque

text: In 2005, American Express released the "American Express Travelers Cheque Card", a stored-value card that serves the same purposes as a traveller's cheque, but can be used in stores like a credit card. It discontinued the card in October 2007. A number of other financial companies went on to issue stored-value or pre-paid debit cards containing several currencies that could be used like credit or debit cards at shops and at ATMs, mimicking the traveller's cheque in electronic form. One of the major examples is the Visa TravelMoney card.


title: Sailor Venus

text: , better known as , is a fictional character in the "Sailor Moon" and "" manga series written by Naoko Takeuchi. Minako is her sailor form's alternative human identity as part of the Sailor Soldiers, female supernatural fighters who protect the Solar System from evil.


title: Sailor Venus

text: Minako is the fourth Sailor Soldier to be discovered by Usagi Tsukino, although she was the first Soldier to awaken her powers, even before Usagi did. She possesses powers associated with love and beauty, light, and golden material metal. In the manga and anime series, she dreams of becoming a famous idol, but in the live-action series, her character is already a well-known celebrity.


title: Sailor Venus

text: Minako is introduced as the protagonist of Naoko Takeuchi's much-shorter manga series "", the predecessor to "Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon." In it (and the early part of "Sailor Moon"), she goes by the pseudonym , short for "Venus", and is given a personal backstory. The plot lines of "Sailor V" are generally compatible with the latter series, but are usually considered separate. Later, she co-stars with Rei Hino in a special short story titled "Rei and Minako's Girls School Battle".


title: Sailor Venus

text: Minako is first introduced in the "" manga, of which she is the lead character. She is awakened as a Soldier by the white cat Artemis when she is thirteen years old and instructed that she has a duty to become the beautiful warrior, Sailor V. Artemis explains that Venus and Earth are "twin planets" of about the same size and weight, that Venus is her "mother star," and that she must protect Earth from its enemies. He shows her Magellan Castle orbiting around Venus and says that it is hers, although the existence of these castles is not revealed to the other Soldier characters until late in the "Sailor Moon" series. She first dons her red hair bow during the first chapter of the story, on the recommendation of a handsome villain character that she defeats, and is almost never seen without it again.


title: Sailor Venus

text: Though Sailor Moon technically leads the team during the various incarnations of the franchise, she’s actually not the team leader of the Sailor Senshi; instead, that honor goes to Sailor Venus. Minako exhibits considerable skills, cunning, and strength. Minako is depicted as athletic, friendly, romantic, resilient, and intelligent. She is very versatile acting very graceful, clever, and refined at times at others. Minako is able to wield a heavy sword with one hand to take on Queen Beryl. She also demonstrates serious leg strength when she jumps from the ground to the second story of a building in the ‘90s anime. Like Sailor Mars, Minako also has experience in hand-to-hand combat as she took on members of the “Dark Agency” in her own series Codename Sailor V. When "Codename: Sailor V" was enough of a hit to earn its own anime adaptation, Takeuchi was asked to expand the concept to include more girls, and when she did, she placed Usagi Tsukino as the protagonist, with Minako as a part of the team.


title: Sailor Venus

text: In the anime only, Minako spends some of her time as Sailor V in London, where she meets a young Interpol officer named Katarina who taught her English and acts as a big sister, and a young man called Alan, with whom she falls in love. One day Sailor V was the first to enter in a abbandoned warehouse but she was caught in an explosion after a criminal threw a grenade and assumed to be dead, Minako survives but she was injured she saw Alan and Katarina together and realizes that they had become a couple. She moves back to Japan shortly thereafter. She is also widely traveled in the manga, having visited Greece and China.


title: Sailor Venus

text: As a result of her past battles, when Minako meets the other Sailor Soldiers she has a relatively serious personality, and is very focused on their mission as Sailor Soldier. In the manga, she even tells them she is the princess they have been searching for, although in fact she is merely serving as a decoy to protect the real princess, Usagi. Throughout the first story arc she has by far the strongest memories of their past life during the time of Silver Millennium.


title: Sailor Venus

text: Artemis lives in Minako's home and is one of her closest friends. Minako lives with both her parents, although references to her family life are few in the "Sailor Moon" series. Her family, like Usagi's, is based on Takeuchi's own family. For the first several story arcs, Minako attends a different junior high school from the others, Shiba Kōen. When the characters enter high school, she joins Usagi, Ami, and Makoto at Azabu Jūban. One of her greatest loves is volleyball, as shown from the beginning of the first "Sailor V" chapter and throughout the rest of the series — she even considers quitting the Sailor Soldiers to become a professional, and in high school joins the Volleyball club. Her favorite class is Physical Education, while in the manga her least favorites are mathematics and the English language. In the anime, having lived in England for some time, she is skilled at the language (in one episode it is shown her skills are more refined than Ami Mizuno's), and Usagi begs Minako to teach her.


title: Sailor Venus

text: Minako's other greatest love is pop culture. She desperately wants to be an idol, and so makes a hobby of chasing them and attending auditions in acting, dancing, and singing whenever possible. She takes her role as the "Soldier of Love" literally, and enjoys regaling friends and acquaintances with advice about romance. Despite her declared expertise, Minako herself has little personal experience in relationships (aside from a brief and ill-fated love in the "Sailor V" manga), but is enthusiastic about romantic opportunities — even to the point of two-timing a pair of the series' villains. She has a crush on Yaten Kou throughout the "Sailor Stars" anime storyline, and in one episode the sinister idea of herself as a cat with Yaten gives her a nosebleed — a common symbol of sexual arousal in anime. In the manga, by contrast, Minako suspects Yaten of being an enemy; while confronting the Starlights, she and Rei reaffirm that they do not need men because they have dedicated their lives to their duty of protecting Usagi.


title: Sailor Venus

text: While Minako dreams of being an idol in the manga and anime adaptations, in the live-action series "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" depicts her as a famous singer whose fanbase includes Usagi Tsukino in particular is an enormous fan. Her second album, newly released at the start of the series, is called "Venus" and her most popular song is C'est La Vie, which is a Japanese pun: in Japanese (and, to some extent, in English as well), the French phrase and the name of her alter-ego, Sailor V, are pronounced almost identically (as "sērāvī"). Her first album, "Imitation", was released prior to her meeting Artemis and becoming a Sailor Guardian, but its track listing, shown onscreen, foreshadows later plot developments: Origin of the Legend, Imitation, Don't Lose! Christmas Girl, Love Versus Dream, Happily, Secret!, Orange Heart, White Rendezvous, and Make Up! Power!!.


title: Sailor Venus

text: In the live-action series, Minako secretly leads a double life as idol and heroine—famous as a singer, and equally well known as Sailor V. She remains entirely separate from the other girls, but is aware of each of their civilian identities. As in the other series, she eventually discards the guise of Sailor V in favor of her true form, Sailor Venus; nevertheless, she becomes only slightly involved with the others, and frequently expresses disapproval of their effectiveness as Guardians. She is frustrated by their lack of focus, and distances herself both for that reason and because, as revealed later, she has a terminal illness and does not want them to become close to her and then be saddened by her probable death.


title: Sailor Venus

text: When the other Guardians learn that Minako and Sailor V are the same person, they hide it from the irresponsible Usagi for some time. The character Minako is closest to being friends with is Rei Hino, with whom she has a conflicted relationship. Rei is supposed to be the secondary leader, but she is initially both less skilled than Minako and resentful of her advice. Although they often disagree and compete, they develop great respect for each other, to the point where Minako sometimes lets her guard down, and eventually confides to Rei about both her illness and what she feels is her destiny as a Sailor Soldier.


title: Sailor Venus

text: In terms of personality, the live-action Minako is deeply solemn and rarely smiles. Besides the complications from her unnamed illness (the doctors in one episode give her six months to live), her obsession with the collective past life makes her feel detached from the world, thinking of her current life as less important. However, she does seem to genuinely love singing, and shows a small mischievous side, especially in her relationship with Artemis.


title: Sailor Venus

text: As in the manga, she serves as a decoy Moon Princess for part of the series. She seems to be aware of her true position, often endangering herself to protect the real princess, Sailor Moon. In a twist, Usagi serves as a decoy Minako, chasing away a group of autograph hounds. She does this because she figures Minako needed to be away from the trappings of stardom for a while. Minako is touched by this and cares about Usagi as a friend to the point of trying to protect her from Mio(whom she suspected is working with the Dark Kingdom to hurt Usagi).


title: Sailor Venus

text: Near the end of the series, it is revealed that there is a surgery which might either correct Minako's condition or kill her early. She refuses to undergo the procedure, preferring to last as long as she can without it, but the other girls convince her to take any chance at life she can get. She is shown leaving for the hospital, and later that day, Artemis arrives at Rei's temple to tell the girls that Minako has died. She did, however, leave each of them a note giving her goodbyes. Rei uses Minako's weapon, Venus Dagger, in conjunction with her own Mars Dagger in the final battle. Though Minako dies before the final battle, Usagi's use of the Silver Crystal in the finale gives her a second chance at life. This allows her to take part in the battle in the direct-to-DVD special, in which she uses her own weapon as well as Rei's (who is in the hospital) in combat.


title: Sailor Venus

text: As a character with different incarnations, special powers, transformations and a long lifetime virtually spanned between the Silver Millennium era and the 30th century, Minako gains multiple aspects and aliases as the series progresses.


title: Sailor Venus

text: Minako's primary Soldier identity is that of Sailor Venus. Sailor Venus wears a sailor suit colored in orange (choker, collar, center of front bow, elbow fittings on her gloves, skirt, earrings, and a matching set of orange ankle-strap heels), navy blue (front bow) and yellow (tiara gem and back bow), and retains the red bow she wears as a civilian. In the live-action series, this bow appears only when she is in one of her Guardian forms, and has a gem in the center. In the manga, live-action series and "Sailor Moon Crystal", she wears an item called the Wink Chain around her waist, which she sometimes uses as a weapon. She is given specific titles throughout the various series, including Soldier of Love, Soldier of Love and Hope, and Soldier of Light and Beauty. Her personality is no different from when she is a civilian, although she must be Sailor Venus to access her celestial powers.


title: Sailor Venus

text: In Japanese, the name for the planet Venus is , the first kanji indicating a metal, especially gold, and the second indicating a celestial object. Unlike the other Soldiers, her special abilities are not derived from the element in her planet's name, but are instead based on the concept of love, a reference to the Roman goddess of love, Venus, and the Mesopotamian goddess of love and war, Inanna, who was also deemed the personification of the planet Venus. Metal does appear in her use of a special chain as a weapon, and she also has a few attacks with "crescent" in their names, mainly acquired during her time as Sailor V.


title: Sailor Venus

text: Sailor Venus is the "de jure" leader of the Sailor Soldiers in their mission to protect Princess Serenity. In the manga, as the leader, she is entrusted with the poisonous sword used to kill Queen Beryl, which turns the stone blade into a sword made of Silver Crystal.


title: Sailor Venus

text: In the live-action series only, upon her introduction, Sailor Venus's sailor suit is slightly different, in order to represent her disguise as the Moon Princess. She bears the crescent moon symbol on her forehead in place of a tiara (just as she did when she was Sailor V), and wears a crown with a fake Silver Crystal on it. The latter disappears after the gem is revealed to be a fake, and she gains a normal tiara when Usagi is revealed as the real princess. Other characters refer to her in this form as Princess Sailor Venus. In the manga she does not have a different title or a crown, but she does retain the crescent moon on her forehead until Usagi is revealed as the princess.


title: Sailor Venus

text: As she grows stronger, Sailor Venus gains additional powers, and at key points her uniform changes to reflect this. The first takes place in Act 39 of the manga, when she obtains the Venus Crystal and her outfit becomes similar to that of Super Sailor Moon. She is not given a new title. A similar event is divided between Episodes 143 and 154 of the anime, and she is given the name Super Sailor Venus. A third form appears in Act 42 of the manga, unnamed but analogous to Eternal Sailor Moon ("sans" wings). In the official visual book for Sailor Moon Eternal, this form was named "Eternal Sailor Venus".


title: Sailor Venus

text: In Silver Millennium, Sailor Venus was also the Princess of her home planet. She was the leader of those who protected Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom. As Princess Venus, she dwelt in Magellan Castle and wore a yellow gown—she appears in this form in the original manga, as well as in supplementary art. In "Codename: Sailor V", it is shown that she was loved by Adonis, a foot soldier in her army, who was later under the command of Endymion. His love went unnoticed by her, and he became a villain working for the Dark Agency after he was reborn.


title: Sailor Venus

text: Takeuchi once drew her in the arms of Kunzite, leader of the Four Kings of Heaven. In the "Original Picture Collection Vol. I", Takeuchi expresses a desire to explore the possibility of such relationships; unlike the other characters, with Venus and Kunzite this is explored within the series. In one flashback, Minako blushes and seems flustered around Kunzite after a conversation about love, and in the last chapter of "", Princess Venus is shown as having had an infatuation with Kunzite. In "Sailor Moon Crystal" it is established that Sailor Venus and Kunzite were in love at the time of the Moon Kingdom. This is also stated in the stage musicals, as well as in the "" video game.


title: Sailor Venus

text: A preliminary form, under which Minako fought alone before the other Sailor Soldiers were awakened. She was used to distract the enemy into thinking she was the Moon Princess, while trying to find the real one. She wore a different uniform under this name, most notably a red mask, and her appearance and powers incorporated the use of a crescent motif. In the early storyline of "Sailor Moon", she is something of a celebrity figure, of whom Usagi Tsukino is a great fan. She called herself the Soldier of Justice. The V was short for Venus, and she would sometimes introduce herself as such, though no other character refers to this form as such. The form makes a return in two of Chibiusa's picture Diary side stories, namely the first and third, set during the second and fourth story arcs. The former was likely chosen due to her knowing one of people she was rescuing was a Sailor V fan, the use of it in the latter is entirely without explanation.


title: Sailor Venus

text: Because Minako's creation predates the "Sailor Moon" metaseries, some aspects of her character are slightly incompatible with the other Soldiers. For example, her magical attacks lack the strict elemental rules: Venus is typically associated with metal in Chinese astrology, but her attacks are mostly light or love related. The incorporation of the "love element" comes from the Roman goddess Venus.


title: Sailor Venus

text: Sailor V's sailor suit is mostly blue and red, and includes shoulder-armor, quarter-length sleeves, and broad stripes of color. She wears a shirt rather than a leotard, as well as her characteristic red mask. Some of the details vary between version to version; in the manga and live-action series the shirt had sleeves and smooth gloves, but in the anime it was sleeveless with ring-topped gloves. Occasionally in the manga, tiny, ornamental crescent moon charms were visible on the straps of the indigo high-heeled shoes accompanying this outfit, albeit the presence of these charms often varied from illustration to illustration. The anime added a second layer to her shoulder guards, omitted the crescent Moon that is normally visible on her forehead, and added a second stripe to her collar. In the live-action series, the bow on Sailor V's chest was made dark pink, like the red parts of Sailor Moon's costume, but her mask and hair bow are red.


title: Sailor Venus

text: Minako is portrayed to have borderline superpower abilities in civilian form, such as jumping to the room of Usagi's house from ground level in a single jump and outrunning a car after having her Pure Heart Crystal extracted from her body (something that had previously instantly knocked out the other Senshi and would later kill Neptune and Uranus). Despite this, like the other Sailor Soldiers, she must transform in order to gain access to her special powers. To transform into Sailor Venus, she must first raise a special device (pen, bracelet, wand, or crystal) into the air and shout a special phrase, originally "Venus Power, Make-up!" As she becomes more powerful and obtains new transformation devices, this phrase changes to evoke Venus Star, Planet, or Crystal Power.


title: Sailor Venus

text: In the first anime, Sailor Venus's transformation sequence evolves slightly over time, whether to update the background images or to accommodate changes to her uniform or a new transformation device, but the animations all involve a ribbon of stars which she whips around to form her outfit. The second anime has her first and second transformations involving orange ribbons, her third involving stars that she envelopes herself in and the fourth involving both.


title: Sailor Venus

text: Minako's transformations into Sailor V are not clearly shown—in the Sailor V manga, she raises her transformation pen and shouts the phrase "Moon Power Transform". By saying the word "Crescent" first, she can take on a disguise using her Crescent Compact, and this is used in the "Sailor Moon" manga as well. In the live-action series she is shown storing her uniform in a suitcase, but she is also shown changing instantaneously into Sailor V while running down the street. Although her true identity as Sailor Venus takes precedence over her temporary Sailor V guise, in her own manga series she used a number of powers unique to the form. Her most important item was the Crescent Compact, which she used to gain energy for her primary attack, "Crescent Beam" (a beam of light which strikes enemies). She is also given numerous physical attacks, which are references to her guardian planet, and comically named one-off powers. The Compact must be placed in the moonlight to charge. It can also be used as a sharp throwing weapon, and in the manga series she retains it even as Sailor Venus. In the live-action version, she has an identical item which does not double as a compact, called the Crescent Moon Cutter. The pen she uses to transform into Sailor V has an extendable antenna used to contact "Boss," and no matter what is written with it, it will always be right. She later uses the same pen to transform into Sailor Venus. This form is not lost upon obtaining the Sailor Venus transformation, as shown in the side stories.


title: Sailor Venus

text: In the "Sailor Moon" anime, Sailor Venus' first primary attack is again "Crescent Beam", this time without use of an item. She uses a similar power in the live-action series, without using an item or any special phrase, but nothing like it in the manga; instead, she uses "Rolling Heart Vibration", which also makes a single appearance in the live-action series. Her first attack that is entirely consistent across the different adaptations is "Venus Love-Me Chain", which in the manga and live-action series uses the chain wrapped around her waist. This remains her main attack for the rest of the second story arc, all of the third, and much of the fourth, and the chain itself is used in several variations, with the links taking on different shapes. The chain-links are round in the manga and live-action series, but heart-shaped in the anime. "Venus Wink Chain Sword" (with heart-shaped links) appears in Manga Act 24, and "Love-Me Moon Chain" is her attack when disguised as Sailor Moon in anime episode 102.


title: Sailor Venus

text: When she takes on her second Soldier form (Super Sailor Venus in the anime), she gains the ability to use "Venus Love and Beauty Shock", which is her most powerful attack. In the manga she also gains the Venus Crystal, which is her Sailor Crystal and the source of all of her power. In the live-action series, she is given a tambourine-like weapon (the Sailor Star Tambo) by Artemis. Also in the live-action series, once Minako discovers her true potential as a Guardian, she uses the attack "Rolling Heart Vibration", a heart-shaped beam of rainbow energy, but only uses it once. She used the attack much earlier in the manga.


title: Sailor Venus

text: In the transition between the "Sailor V" and "Sailor Moon" series, Minako's basic character design did not change—in fact, creator Naoko Takeuchi has written that the concept of Minako has barely changed at all from the first moment she was created. The magazine that serialized "Sailor V", Run-Run, intended to produce an OVA based on the character, but went bankrupt before it could happen, so Minako was relegated to the sidelines as one of Sailor Moon's costars, to Takeuchi's regret.


title: Sailor Venus

text: In Minako's new form as Sailor Venus, she would have a new uniform, and this went through many changes before settling to the one used in publication. Early on, each of the Sailor Soldiers had a fully unique costume, and Venus's was inspired largely by the Sailor V outfit. It was colored mostly in dark blue, with orange used only for the chest-ribbon (which was not bow-shaped), and included a crescent moon motif, prominent armor, and white- and red-stripes. Her red hair-ribbon and trademark Sailor V mask were present as well. Later, Takeuchi was surprised by these sketches and stated that she did not remember drawing them.