Tim Lacouture @TimT74108

Today, we remember Firefighter Robert Beddia of Engine 24 and Firefighter Joseph Graffagnino of Ladder 5, who made the ultimate sacrifice on this day in 2007 while battling the 7-alarm Deutsche Bank building fire.

@03MarineGrunt 2/2 WPNS

@miles_commodore Elway !

@MilitaryCooI @Teufelhund73

My third ever Hole in One at Northern Pines Golf course in Kalispell, Montana. Windy with rain on the horizon. #fishingupnext

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@fundstrat Tom, all in. Hope you are 💯 correct !

@GOLF_com @WGAChamps @USGA Keep the balance and explosive on the downswing !

@GOLF_com @WGAChamps @USGA Love that swing ! 3/4 of victory right there !

August 12, 1944. On this day the young man who was supposed to become President of the United States is blown out of the sky over England, and in that instant the whole future of a family, and arguably of the country, changes course. His name was Joseph Kennedy Junior, and he was the older brother of John F. Kennedy. The Kennedys were a wealthy, ferociously ambitious American family, and the plan, the family's plan, had always been clear. Joe Junior was the golden eldest son, handsome, charismatic, groomed from boyhood to go into politics and, everyone assumed, all the way to the White House. His younger brother Jack was the sickly, bookish second son, not the one marked for greatness. Joe was the heir. When the war came, both brothers served, and there was a fierce sibling competition in it. Jack had already become a hero in the Pacific, surviving the sinking of his PT boat and saving his crew, a story that made headlines back home. Joe, a Navy pilot flying anti-submarine patrols over the Atlantic, had completed his tour and could have gone home. Instead, partly in the shadow of his younger brother's fame, he volunteered for one more mission, an extremely dangerous secret one. It was called Operation Aphrodite, an experimental and desperately risky idea. Worn-out bombers were packed with tons of high explosive to be flown as radio-controlled flying bombs against hardened German targets, in this case a site in France believed to house a terrifying new German gun aimed at London. The plan was for a crew to take off, get the aircraft airborne and armed, and then bail out over England, leaving the drone to be guided to the target by a following plane. On the 12th, Joe Kennedy and his co-pilot took off in a B-24 stuffed with about ten tons of explosive. Roughly eighteen minutes into the flight, before they could bail out, before they even reached the coast, the explosives detonated prematurely. The aircraft vanished in an enormous blast in the sky over England. Both men were killed instantly. There was almost nothing left to recover. Joe Junior was 29. And with his death, the family's ambitions, the destiny that had been built around the eldest son, passed to the next in line. The sickly younger brother, Jack, the war hero who had never been meant to carry the family's political hopes, now would. Sixteen years later, John F. Kennedy became President of the United States. It is one of history's great what-ifs, and it turns on a premature explosion in the sky on this date, and an older brother who volunteered for one mission too many.

14 career Grand Slam titles, 5 US Open singles titles! Time to celebrate Sampras! Happy birthday!

@BendelowGreens The gentleman amateur is a great career path !

As we continue remembering the 142 Americans killed in the Vietnam War who were born on the Fourth of July, today we honor Specialist Four Robert J. Smith. Born on America's Independence Day, Robert J. Smith would ultimately give his life defending the freedoms that day represents. On March 21, 1967, Fire Support Base Gold, northwest of Tay Ninh, came under a massive enemy assault during Operation Junction City. More than five Viet Cong battalions attacked the isolated base with mortars, recoilless rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, and a determined ground assault that breached portions of the American perimeter. Amid the fierce fighting stood SP4 Robert J. Smith. As artillery crews lowered their guns to fire directly into the advancing enemy and infantrymen fought desperately to hold the line, Smith fought alongside his fellow soldiers until he was killed in action. He was one of 31 Americans who gave their lives in what would later become known as the Battle of Suoi Tre. The battle ended in a decisive American victory, with more than 600 Viet Cong killed. Yet for the families of those 31 fallen Americans, victory could never replace the sons, husbands, brothers, and friends they lost that day. Born on the Fourth of July, Robert J. Smith's life began on the anniversary of American liberty. It ended on a battlefield half a world away, where he made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of that liberty. Today, we honor and remember Specialist Four Robert J. Smith. May his sacrifice, and the sacrifices of all who served beside him, never be forgotten.

@notgaetti .408 OBP , 89 BB

5 incredible Open Championship wins in just 9 years -

National Purple Heart Day. August 7, 2026

SK 🇺🇸 @eastonaxe

2 weeks ago

On Purple Heart Day we remember and honor the brave men and women who were either wounded on the battlefield or paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives. 🇺🇸 💜August 7th

4 18 91 2K 1

@necky_fade NEPTA Norman’s two open championships. Too much focus on his American major follies !

@BillRussellNBA I don’t know a single thing about basketball, but I know Peak Bill Russel and Larry Bird beat the all time Knicks

15 years ago today, August 6, 2011, a CH-47 Chinook helicopter carrying an American quick reaction force (QRF) was struck by a Taliban RPG in the Tangi Valley of Wardak Province, Afghanistan. All 38 men aboard were killed. 17 Navy SEALs, the majority from DEVGRU's Gold Squadron, 5 Naval Special Warfare support personnel, 3 Air Force Special Tactics airmen, the Army helicopter crew, and 7 Afghan commandos plus an interpreter and military working dog. It remains the single deadliest day in the history of American special operations and the greatest loss the Navy SEAL community has ever endured. The mission itself was almost ordinary. The team was flying in as reinforcements for Army Rangers already in contact nearby, which was familiar work these men had performed countless times. There was nothing unusual about the call that night. That's part of what makes the loss so difficult to absorb: a routine task, one unlucky shot, and in a moment an entire generation of hard won experience was gone. 15 years later the loss still moves through the community, through the men who lived only because they were not on that helicopter, through the families of the ones who were, and through every Gold Star wife and child who marks this date each year. We speak their names and remember what a single night can take from an entire brotherhood. Never forgotten 🔱

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@Djoko_UTD GOAT serve and Volley !