Word: rocketeers
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Most of the fighting was centered in the heavily populated and agriculturally rich Mekong River Delta area, known as Military Region IV. The Communists launched their attacks-primarily by rocket and mortar-against bridges, roads, district and provincial capitals, and government outposts manned by the increasingly feeble regional militia. Kien Tuong and Dinh Tuong provinces were particularly hard hit (see map). Communists in Kien Tuong, using a shoulder-fired missile, shot down a huge Chinook helicopter, killing all 54 government troops aboard. A major target was Highway 4, linking the Delta with Saigon...
American sources believe that the Russian tragedy may have been caused by an accidental ignition of fuel used in a non-nuclear warhead; they speculate that it may have caught fire while the rocket was still on the ship's missile launcher during a test firing. Although the Raskin-class destroyers were a vital part of the Soviet Mediterranean fleet in the mid-1960s, they have gradually been replaced by newer ships because they have no facilities for helicopters and their missiles can be used only against aircraft. Western experts suspect that the warships often suffered from serious engine...
September 8: Evel Knievel tries to clear Idaho's Snake River Canyon in a homemade rocket. He fails, parachutes to safety, and earns a guaranteed $6 million...
...responsibility and civilized restraints fade, giving way to exaggerated feelings, high suggestibility and impulsive, primitive behavior. These views, expanded and refined by later scholars, were amply illustrated last week in the crowd of 16,000 spectators who gathered to see Evel Knievel's fizzled but nonfatal attempt to rocket across Idaho's Snake River Canyon. The scene, as reported by TIME Correspondent Leo Janos...
...crowd surged forward for a better view, nearly sweeping some onlookers over the canyon's rim. One 15-year-old who was pushed 100 ft. to the edge fell into a 5-ft.-deep crevice in rocks hanging over the chasm. Then, as Knievel's rocket disappeared below the canyon lip, hundreds of spectators began dashing for their cars or bikes, apparently caring more about beating the traffic than finding out whether Knievel had lived or died...