This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Carlos Benavides (chale biggs), AM1
to remember
Acuna., Miguel Lara, GMC USN(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Corpus Christi, TX
Last Address Un ranchito in South Texas
Date of Passing Aug 19, 2007
Location of Interment Seaside Memorial Park Mausoleum - Corpus Christi, Texas
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Mike was a great American. A proud Pearl Harbor Survivor. A father of six and a nice neighbor; a retired CPO and a retired Civil Servant at CCAD(Corpus Christi Army Depot). Mike is buried close to my dad, who is also a WWII veteran. I miss them both. The world is a better place because of their service and family.
Activity during WWII:
Aboard USS Vestal at Pearl Harbor, and served on the her until 1943. He was then transferred to the USS Titanina for the rest of the war. He took part in the landings in North Africa, Bougaineville, Leyte Gulf, Guam, Borneo and many others in the Pacific.
Korean War:
He was aboard the USS Los Angeles when it was hit by shore batteries from North Korea.
Description The crisis started with the 823 Artillery Bombardment at 5:30 pm on August 23, 1958, when the PRC's People's Liberation Army (PLA) began an intense artillery bombardment against Quemoy (Kinmen). The ROC troops on Kinmen dug in and then returned fire. In the heavy exchange of fire, roughly 440 ROC soldiers and 460 PRC soldiers were killed.
This conflict was a continuation of the First Taiwan Strait Crisis, which had begun immediately after the Korean War was over. The Nationalist Chinese had begun to build on the island of Kinmen and the nearby Matsu archipelago. During 1954, the PLA began firing artillery at both Kinmen and some of the nearby Matsu islands.
The American Eisenhower Administration responded to the request for aid from the ROC according to its obligations in the mutual defense treaty that had been ratified in 1954. President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the reinforcement of the U.S. Navy Seventh Fleet in the area, and he ordered American naval vessels to help the Nationalist Chinese government to protect the supply lines to the islands.
Also, under a secret effort called "Operation Black Magic", the U.S. Navy modified some of the F-86 Sabre fighter planes of the ROC Air Force with its newly developed AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles (early models). These missiles gave the Nationalist Chinese pilots a decisive edge over the Soviet-made MiG-15 and MiG-17 fighters in the skies over the Matsu Islands and the Taiwan Strait. The ROC pilots used the Sidewinder missiles to score numerous kills on PLAAF MiG aircraft.
The US Army's contribution was to reinforce the strategic air defense capability of the ROC. A provisional Nike battalion was organized at Fort Bliss, TX, and sent via USMTS USS General J. C. Breckinridge (AP-176) to Taiwan. The 2nd Missile Battalion was augmented with detachments of signal, ordnance and engineers, totaling some 704 personnel. Recent research from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration also indicates that the U.S. Air Force was prepared for nuclear warfare against the PRC.[citation needed]
Twelve long-range 203 mm (8-inch) M115 howitzer artillery pieces and numerous 155 mm howitzers were transferred from the U.S. Marine Corps to the Army of the ROC. These were sent west to Kinmen Island to gain superiority in the artillery duel back and forth over the straits there. The impact of these powerful (but conventional) artillery pieces led some members of the PLA to believe that American artillerymen had begun to use nuclear weapons against them.
Soon, the Soviet Union dispatched its foreign minister, Andrei Gromyko, to Beijing to discuss the actions of the PLA and the Red Chinese Air Force, with advice of caution to the Red Chinese.
On September 22, 1958, the Sidewinder missile was used for the first time in air-to-air combat as 32 Nationalist Chinese F-86s clashed with 100 Red Chinese MiGs in a series of aerial engagements. Numerous MiGs were shot down by Sidewinders, the first "kills" to be scored by air-to-air missiles in combat.
Soon, the PRC was faced with a stalemate, the PLA's artillerymen had run out of artillery shells.[citation needed] The Red Chinese government announced a large decrease in bombardment levels on October 6.
