The following is a compilation of significant dates in our commonwealth’s military history. For more on the legacy of our Citizen-Soldiers and Airmen, visit the
Kentucky National Guard eMuseum.
October 1, 1879 – Joseph Preyer Nuckols appointed Adjutant General of Kentucky by Gov. Luke P. Blackburn.
[caption id="attachment_10194" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Adjutant General Joseph Preyer Nuckols"]
October 1, 1887 – Samuel Ewing Hill is appointed Adjutant General of Kentucky by Gov. Simon Bolivar Buckner.
October 1, 1950 – Capt. Richard Lee Ross, of Prospect (Jefferson County) died in an aircraft accident near West Point Kentucky during a training flight. He was a member of the 165
th Fighter Squadron, Kentucky Air National Guard.
October 2, 1867 – Franklin Lane Wolford is appointed Adjutant General of Kentucky by Gov. John W. Stevenson.
October 2, 1869 – Pvt. Allie Cooper was killed while on state active duty in Springfield, Marion County while serving with Captain Levy's Cavalry Company of the Woodford Rifles . The Guard had been called out by the governor in response to a request from a District Judge citing lawless bands in the area, sometimes referred to as “Regulators,” they had hung a man named Clem Crowdus. The Guard was sent to assist in capturing those responsible and to keep further similar incidents from occurring. Pvt. Allie Cooper's killer, a citizen with the last name of Rollins was tried and convicted for Cooper's murder. Newspaper accounts from the time say that Cooper and an unknown number of fellow soldiers were apparently off duty, were fired upon from the back room of a saloon by at least two assailants. Cooper and his fellow soldiers had been attending the county fair, was reportedly killed by a member of one of the "lawless bands" the Guard had been called in to quiet shortly after they entered the saloon and were speaking to the owner.
October 4, 1846 – Duel at Port Lavacca, Texas, between Capt. Thos. F. Marshall and Lieut. James S. Jackson, of Capt. Cassius M. Clay's company, both of the Kentucky cavalry regiment; two shots exchanged, but both escape unhurt (Mexican-American War)
[caption id="attachment_10199" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The Battle of the Thames (War of 1812)"]
October 5, 1813 – Kentucky Governor Shelby, with 4,000 Kentuckians reinforce Gen. Harrison, and take part in the brilliant victory of the river Thames, which closes the hostilities in the northwest theatre of operations (War of 1812)
October 6, 1954 – The Kentucky Medal for Valor presented to
Jess D. Brown,
Walter Carter,
Howard A. Curtis and
Charles W. Simmons by Governor Lawrence Wetherby. They were the first Kentucky Air National Guard recipients to be awarded the medal.
October 7, 1961 – The 413
th Ordnance Company arrived at Fort Stewart for active duty in response to the Berlin Crisis. They returned to Kentucky National Guard status on August 12, 1962.
October 7, 2001 – Operation Enduring Freedom (Military Phase) began (Global War on Terrorism)
[caption id="attachment_10196" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="The Battle of Perryville (Civil War)"]
October 8, 1862 – Battle of Perryville, followed by Gen. Bragg's withdrawal from Kentucky (Civil War)
October 8, 1971 – Operation Jefferson Glenn (Vietnam War)
October 9, 1950 – Invasion of North Korea (Korean War)
[caption id="attachment_10198" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="The Battle of Pleasant Point (1774 )"]
October 10, 1774 – Battle of Point Pleasant during Lord Dunmore's War. Frontier militiamen from Va. were attacked by Ohio River Valley Indian tribes. After an all day battle the Indians left the field, heavy casualties on both sides. The treaty that followed this battle ceded the land southeast of Ohio River to Virginia opening up that territory for settlement.
October 10, 1942 – Sgt. Oscar Dean, Company D, 192
nd Tank Battalion (Harrodsburg Tankers) died at Camp Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija, Philippines of dysentery (World War II)
October 10, 1950 – Kentucky Air National Guard’s 123
rd Fighter Group, personnel and equipment placed on active duty at the direction of President Harry S. Truman. They are ordered to report to Standiford Municipal Airport to serve for a period of 21 consecutive months unless sooner relieved. The unit is part of the First Air Force, Continental Air Command. Elements called to active duty: 123
rd Fighter Group, 165
th Fighter Squadron, 223
rd Air Service Group (Less Detachment C) and 165
th Utility Flight (Korean War)
October 10, 1961 – The 3
rd Medium Tank Battalion arrived at Fort Knox for active duty in response to the Berlin Crisis. They returned to Kentucky National Guard status on August 12, 1962.
[caption id="attachment_10201" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Adjutant General Frank Wolford"]
October 11, 1867 – Gov. John W. Stevenson authorizes Adjutant General Frank Wolford to raise 3 volunteer companies in Boyle, Marion, and Casey counties, to sustain the laws and protect the people against the outrages and murders of the "regulators."
October 11, 1991 – Tebbs Shewmaker Moore is appointed Adjutant General of Kentucky by Gov. Wallace G. Wilkinson.
October 12, 2000 – Bombing of USS Cole.
October 13, 1775 – U.S. Navy established.
October 14, 1861 – John William Finnell is appointed Adjutant General of Kentucky by Gov. Beriah Magoffin and re-appointed to the position by Gov. James F. Robinson.
October 14, 1858 – Presentation to the Masonic Grand Lodge of Kentucky, of the sword worn by Col. Joseph Hamilton Daviess when he fell at the Battle of Tippecanoe - enclosed in a box made of oak from the vary tree under whose shade he expired; presented by Judge Levi H. Todd, of Indiana, a native of Kentucky and a member of the family of Col. Daviess.
October 14, 1952 – Operation Showdown/Battle of Hill 598 (Sniper Ridge) began (Korean War)
[caption id="attachment_10213" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Medical corpsmen of the 1st Battalion Aid Station, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th U.S. Infantry Division, assist in helping wounded infantrymen of Companies D and L, 31st Regiment, following the fight for Hill 598. (Korean War)"]
October 15, 1813 – Kentucky troops reach Frenchtown, on the river Raisin, on their return from the victory of the Thames. They collect 65 skeletons of their massacred countrymen, and inter them with proper honors (War of 1812)
October 19, 1781 – Surrender of Gen. Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia (American Revolutionary War)
October 20, 1969 – 2
nd Battalion, 138
th Field Artillery returned home and was released from active duty on October 20, 1969 after serving 11½ months in Vietnam (Vietnam War)
October 20, 1950 – Korean War’s first Airborne Operation (Korean War)
October 22, 1790 – Harmar's Defeat. Col. Trotter leads Kentuckians during the campaign (Early Indian Wars)
October 23, 1944– Battle for Leyte Gulf (World War II)
[caption id="attachment_10203" align="alignright" width="192" caption="Capt. John William Shewmaker"]
October 23, 1951 – Capt. John William Shewmaker of Harrodsburg was a pilot with the 165
th Fighter Squadron for several years and went to Korea with the 111
th Fighter-Bomber Squadron and was killed while flying an escort mission over North Korea on a bombing raid on this date. He was classified missing in action until the end of 1953. The Kentucky Air National Guard base was named Shewmaker Air National Guard Base in his honor on February 17, 1959 with a public ceremony in June 1960. The name was ordered changed in 1976 with the new designation of Standiford Field (ANG).
October 23, 1965 – Battle of the Ia Drang Valley began (Vietnam War)
October 23, 1983 – Beirut Terrorist Attack.
October 24 – United Nations Day
October 24, 1944 – Pvt. Vernon H. Bussell, Pfc. Robert V. Cloyd, Pfc. Ancel Edgar Crick, Pvt. First Class John Lewis Cummins, Pvt. James William Sallee, all serving with Headquarters Company 192
nd Light Tank Battalion (Harrodsburg Tankers) died aboard the Japanese “Hell Ship” Arisan Maru, when it was sunk.
October 25, 1983 – Operation Urgent Fury.
[caption id="attachment_10205" align="alignright" width="144" caption="Kentucky Air National Guard 2nd Lt. Richard L. Hudson"]
October 27 – Navy Day
October 28, 1961 – The 2
nd Medium Tank Battalion arrived at Fort Stewart for active duty in response to the Berlin Crisis. They returned to Kentucky National Guard status on August 12, 1962.
October 29, 1967– Battle of Loc Ninh began (Vietnam War)
October 30, 1957 – 2
nd Lt. Richard Lloyd Hudson perished near Vevay, In., when the Kentucky Air National Guard F-86A Sabre Jet he was piloting crashed during a routine Air Defense Command scramble. He enlisted in the Kentucky Air National Guard in August 1953. He entered cadet training in November 1955 and received his commission and wings on March 28, 1957.
October 31, 1968 – Operation Rolling Thunder ended (Vietnam War)
[caption id="attachment_10192" align="alignleft" width="218" caption="Sgt. Daniel Wallace"]
October 31, 2008 – Sgt. Daniel Wallace, of Dry Ridge, Grant County, Kentucky was killed when his unit was attacked by enemy forces while conducting a route clearing mission to remove improvised explosive devices (IED’s) in West Paktika Province, Afghanistan. Wallace was a member of Company C, 201
st Engineer Battalion based in Cynthiana and serving with Company B from Olive Hill in Afghanistan. Wallace was serving as a gunner on a Mine-Resistant, Armor-Protected vehicle (MRAP) when they came under small-arms fire. The 201
st mobilized in March 2008 and deployed to Afghanistan in May 2008. Wallace enlisted in the Kentucky National Guard in May of 2006.