title: Battle of Fort Sumter

text: Beauregard dispatched aides—Col. James Chesnut, Col. James A. Chisholm, and Capt. Stephen D. Lee—to Fort Sumter on April 11 to issue the ultimatum. Anderson refused, although he reportedly commented, "I shall await the first shot, and if you do not batter us to pieces, we shall be starved out in a few days." The aides returned to Charleston and reported this comment to Beauregard. At 1 a.m. on April 12, the aides brought Anderson a message from Beauregard: "If you will state the time which you will evacuate Fort Sumter, and agree in the meantime that you will not use your guns against us unless ours shall be employed against Fort Sumter, we will abstain from opening fire upon you." After consulting with his senior officers, Maj. Anderson replied that he would evacuate Sumter by noon, April 15, unless he received new orders from his government or additional supplies. Col. Chesnut considered this reply to be too conditional and wrote a reply, which he handed to Anderson at 3:20 a.m.: "Sir: by authority of Brigadier General Beauregard, commanding the Provisional Forces of the Confederate States, we have the honor to notify you that he will open fire of his batteries on Fort Sumter in one hour from this time." Anderson escorted the officers back to their boat, shook hands with each one, and said "If we never meet in this world again, God grant that we may meet in the next."


title: Battle of Fort Sumter

text: At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, Lt. Henry S. Farley, acting upon the command of Capt. George S. James, fired a single 10-inch mortar round from Fort Johnson. (James had offered the first shot to Roger Pryor, a noted Virginia secessionist, who declined, saying, "I could not fire the first gun of the war.") The shell exploded over Fort Sumter as a signal to open the general bombardment from 43 guns and mortars at Fort Moultrie, Fort Johnson, the floating battery, and Cummings Point. Under orders from Beauregard, the guns fired in a counterclockwise sequence around the harbor, with 2 minutes between each shot; Beauregard wanted to conserve ammunition, which he calculated would last for only 48 hours. Edmund Ruffin, another noted Virginia secessionist, had traveled to Charleston to be present at the beginning of the war, and fired one of the first shots at Sumter after the signal round, a 64-pound shell from the Iron Battery at Cummings Point. The shelling of Fort Sumter from the batteries ringing the harbor awakened Charleston's residents (including diarist Mary Chesnut), who rushed out into the predawn darkness to watch the shells arc over the water and burst inside the fort.


title: Battle of Fort Sumter

text: Major Anderson held his fire, awaiting daylight. His troops reported for a call at 6 a.m. and then had breakfast. At 7 a.m., Capt. Abner Doubleday fired a shot at the Ironclad Battery at Cummings Point. He missed. Given the available manpower, Anderson could not take advantage of all of his 60 guns. He deliberately avoided using guns that were situated in the fort where casualties were most likely. The fort's best cannons were mounted on the uppermost of its three tiers—the barbette tier—where his troops were most exposed to incoming fire from overhead. The fort had been designed to withstand a naval assault, and naval warships of the time did not mount guns capable of elevating to shoot over the walls of the fort. However, the land-based cannons manned by the Confederates were capable of high-arcing ballistic trajectories and could therefore fire at parts of the fort that would have been out of naval guns' reach. Fort Sumter's garrison could only safely fire the 21 working guns on the lowest level, which themselves, because of the limited elevation allowed by their embrasures, were largely incapable of delivering fire with trajectories high enough to seriously threaten Fort Moultrie. Moreover, although the Federals had moved as many of their supplies to Fort Sumter as they could manage, the fort was quite low on ammunition and was nearly out at the end of the 34-hour bombardment. A more immediate problem was the scarcity of cloth gunpowder cartridges or bags; only 700 were available at the beginning of the battle and workmen sewed frantically to create more, in some cases using socks from Anderson's personal wardrobe. Because of the shortages, Anderson reduced his firing to only six guns: two aimed at Cummings Point, two at Fort Moultrie, and two at the Sullivan's Island batteries.


title: Battle of Fort Sumter

text: Ships from Fox's relief expedition began to arrive on April 12. Although Fox himself arrived at 3 a.m. on his steamer "Baltic", most of the rest of his fleet was delayed until 6 p.m., and one of the two warships, USS "Powhatan", never did arrive. Unbeknownst to Fox, it had been ordered to the relief of Fort Pickens in Florida. As landing craft were sent toward the fort with supplies, the artillery fire deterred them and they pulled back. Fox decided to wait until after dark and for the arrival of his warships. The next day, heavy seas made it difficult to load the small boats with men and supplies and Fox was left with the hope that Anderson and his men could hold out until dark on April 13.


title: Battle of Fort Sumter

text: Although Sumter was a masonry fort, there were wooden buildings inside for barracks and officer quarters. The Confederates targeted these with heated shot (cannonballs heated red hot in a furnace), starting fires that could prove more dangerous to the men than explosive artillery shells. At 7 p.m. on April 12, a rain shower extinguished the flames and, at the same time, the Union gunners stopped firing for the night. They slept fitfully, concerned about a potential infantry assault against the fort. During the darkness, the Confederates reduced their fire to four shots each hour. The following morning, the full bombardment resumed and the Confederates continued firing hot shot against the wooden buildings. By noon most of the wooden buildings in the fort and the main gate were on fire. The flames moved toward the main ammunition magazine, where 300 barrels of gunpowder were stored. The Union soldiers frantically tried to move the barrels to safety, but two-thirds were left when Anderson judged it was too dangerous and ordered the magazine doors closed. He ordered the remaining barrels thrown into the sea, but the tide kept floating them back together into groups, some of which were ignited by incoming artillery rounds. He also ordered his crews to redouble their efforts at firing, but the Confederates did the same, firing the hot shots almost exclusively. Many of the Confederate soldiers admired the courage and determination of the Yankees. When the fort had to pause its firing, the Confederates often cheered and applauded after the firing resumed and they shouted epithets at some of the nearby Union ships for failing to come to the fort's aid.


title: Battle of Fort Sumter

text: The fort's central flagpole was knocked down at 1 p.m. on April 13, raising doubts among the Confederates about whether the fort was ready to surrender. Col. Louis Wigfall, a former U.S. senator, had been observing the battle and decided that this indicated the fort had had enough punishment. He commandeered a small boat and proceeded from Morris Island, waving a white handkerchief from his sword, dodging incoming rounds from Sullivan's Island. Meeting with Major Anderson, he said, "You have defended your flag nobly, Sir. You have done all that it is possible to do, and General Beauregard wants to stop this fight. On what terms, Major Anderson, will you evacuate this fort?" Anderson was encouraged that Wigfall had said "evacuate," not "surrender." He was low on ammunition, fires were burning out of control, and his men were hungry and exhausted. Satisfied that they had defended their post with honor, enduring over 3,000 Confederate rounds without losing a man, Anderson agreed to a truce at 2:00 p.m.


title: Battle of Fort Sumter

text: Fort Sumter raised Wigfall's white handkerchief on its flagpole as Wigfall departed in his small boat back to Morris Island, where he was hailed as a hero. The handkerchief was spotted in Charleston and a delegation of officers representing Beauregard—Stephen D. Lee, Porcher Miles, a former mayor of Charleston, and Roger Pryor—sailed to Sumter, unaware of Wigfall's visit. Anderson was outraged when these officers disavowed Wigfall's authority, telling him that the former senator had not spoken with Beauregard for two days, and he threatened to resume firing. Meanwhile, General Beauregard himself had finally seen the handkerchief and sent a second set of officers, offering essentially the same terms that Wigfall had presented, so the agreement was reinstated.


title: Battle of Fort Sumter

text: The Union garrison formally surrendered the fort to Confederate personnel at 2:30 p.m., April 13. No one from either side was killed during the bombardment. During the 100-gun salute to the U.S. flag—Anderson's one condition for withdrawal—a pile of cartridges blew up from a spark, mortally wounding privates Daniel Hough and Edward Galloway, and seriously wounding the other four members of the gun crew; these were the first military fatalities of the war. The salute was stopped at fifty shots. Hough was buried in the Fort Sumter parade ground within two hours after the explosion. Galloway and Private George Fielding were sent to the hospital in Charleston, where Galloway died a few days later; Fielding was released after six weeks. The other wounded men and the remaining Union troops were placed aboard a Confederate steamer, the "Isabel", where they spent the night and were transported the next morning to Fox's relief ship "Baltic", resting outside the harbor bar.


title: Battle of Fort Sumter

text: Anderson carried the Fort Sumter Flag with him north, where it became a widely known symbol of the battle and rallying point for supporters of the Union. This inspired Frederic Edwin Church to paint "Our Banner in the Sky", described as a "symbolic landscape embodying the stars and stripes." A chromolithograph was then created and sold to benefit the families of Union soldiers.


title: Battle of Fort Sumter

text: The bombardment of Fort Sumter was the first military action of the American Civil War. Following the surrender, Northerners rallied behind Lincoln's call for all states to send troops to recapture the forts and preserve the Union. With the scale of the rebellion apparently small so far, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers for 90 days. Some Northern states filled their quotas quickly. There were so many volunteers in Ohio that within 16 days they could have met the full call for 75,000 men by themselves. Other governors from border states were undiplomatic in their responses. For example, Gov. Claiborne Jackson wrote, "Not one man will the state of Missouri furnish to carry on any such unholy crusade", and Gov. Beriah Magoffin wrote, "Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her sister Southern states." The governors of other states still in the Union were equally unsupportive. The call for 75,000 troops triggered four additional slave states to declare their secession from the Union and join the Confederacy. The ensuing war lasted four years, effectively ending in April 1865 with the surrender of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at New Appomattox Court House.


title: Battle of Fort Sumter

text: Charleston Harbor was completely in Confederate hands for almost the entire four-year duration of the war, leaving a hole in the Union naval blockade. Union forces conducted major operations in 1862 and 1863 to capture Charleston, first overland on James Island (the Battle of Secessionville, June 1862), then by naval assault against Fort Sumter (the First Battle of Charleston Harbor, April 1863), then by seizing the Confederate artillery positions on Morris Island (beginning with the Second Battle of Fort Wagner, July 1863, and followed by a siege until September). After pounding Sumter to rubble with artillery fire, a final amphibious operation attempted to occupy it (the Second Battle of Fort Sumter, September 1863), but was repulsed and no further attempts were made. The Confederates evacuated Fort Sumter and Charleston in February 1865 as Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman outflanked the city in the Carolinas Campaign. On April 14, 1865, four years to the day after lowering the Fort Sumter Flag in surrender, Robert Anderson (by then a major general, although ill and in retired status) returned to the ruined fort to raise the flag he had lowered in 1861.


title: Battle of Fort Sumter

text: Two of the cannons used at Fort Sumter were later presented to Louisiana State University by General William Tecumseh Sherman, who was president of the university before the war began.


title: Battle of Fort Sumter

text: The U.S. Post Office Department released the Fort Sumter Centennial issue as the first in the series of five stamps marking the Civil War Centennial on April 12, 1961, at the Charleston post office. The stamp was designed by Charles R. Chickering. It illustrates a seacoast gun from Fort Sumter aimed by an officer in a typical uniform of the time. The background features palmetto leaves akin to bursting shells. The state tree of South Carolina, the palmettos suggest the geopolitical area opening Civil War hostilities. This stamp was produced by an engraving and printed by the rotary process in panes of fifty stamps each. The Postal Department authorized an initial printing of 120 million stamps.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: Ziad Samir Jarrah (, ""; May 11, 1975 – September 11, 2001) was a Lebanese terrorist and one of the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks. He was the hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 93, crashing the plane into a field in a rural area near Shanksville, Pennsylvania—after a passenger uprising—as part of the coordinated attacks.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: After a wealthy and secularist upbringing, Jarrah moved to Germany in 1996. He became involved in the planning of the September 11 attacks while attending Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW) in the late 1990s, meeting Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ramzi bin al-Shibh, forming what is now known as the Hamburg cell. Jarrah was recruited by Osama bin Laden for the attacks in 1999. Unique among the hijackers, he was close to his family and girlfriend. He was reportedly the only hijacker who had any significant apprehensions about carrying out the attacks. His family and friends continue to deny his association with the attacks.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: Jarrah arrived in the United States in June 2000. He trained at Huffman Aviation together with Atta and Al-Shehhi with their flight instructor Rudi Dekkers from June 2000 to January 2001, after relocating to Florida from New Jersey.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: On September 7, 2001, Jarrah flew from Fort Lauderdale to Newark. Four days later, he boarded United Airlines Flight 93, and was believed to have taken over as the pilot of the aircraft along with his team of hijackers, which included Saeed al-Ghamdi, Ahmed al-Nami and Ahmed al-Haznawi, who together made an attempt to crash the plane into either the United States Capitol or the White House, which was thwarted when the passengers started a revolt against the hijackers.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: Jarrah was born in Beirut, Lebanon, to a wealthy family. He was brought up in the Muslim quarter of the city, Tarik Jdideh, and received his primary and secondary education from schools in that area. His parents were nominally Sunni Muslim, although they lived a secular lifestyle. In his childhood, he had always wanted to fly planes, but his family discouraged this. "I stopped him from being a pilot," his father told the "Wall Street Journal" a week after the attacks. "I only have one son and I was afraid that he would crash."


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: From 1995 to 1996, while Jarrah was still living in Yemen, according to his family, somebody of the same name rented an apartment in Brooklyn, New York. The landlords claimed it was the same Ziad Jarrah as in the FBI photographs.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: In the spring of 1996, Jarrah moved to Germany with his cousin, Salim. They were there to take a certificate course in German at the University of Greifswald, which was required of foreigners studying in Germany who do not speak the language. While sharing an apartment with his cousin, he reportedly attended discos and beach parties, and his attendance at the mosque fell off. He met Aysel Şengün, a German-born woman of Turkish ancestry studying dentistry, and the two became good friends. They dated on and off for the remainder of his life and lived together briefly, which vexed his more religious friends.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: In September 1997, Jarrah left Greifswald and instead began studying aerospace engineering at the Fachhochschule (University of Applied Sciences) in Hamburg, while working at a Volkswagen paint shop in nearby Wolfsburg. While in Hamburg, he rented an apartment from Rosemarie Canel, who would paint a portrait of him that he would bring back as a gift for his mother that December.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: The 9/11 Commission Report states that Jarrah was a member of the Hamburg cell, along with Mohamed Atta and the others. He did not live with any of the others, however, and can be confirmed to have met with any of them in Hamburg only on a single occasion: that of Said Bahaji's wedding at the al-Quds Mosque in October 1999.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: In late 1999, Jarrah, Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Said Bahaji, and Ramzi bin al-Shibh decided to travel to Chechnya to fight Russian soldiers in the Second Chechen War. Khalid al-Masri and Mohamedou Ould Slahi convinced them at the last minute to travel instead to Afghanistan to meet with Osama bin Laden and train for terrorist attacks. They were told they were on a highly secret mission and were instructed to return to Germany after the operation and enroll in flight school. In October 1999, Ziad Jarrah was filmed at Said Bahaji's wedding with other 9/11 hijackers, including Marwan al-Shehhi.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: In 2006, a video surfaced showing Jarrah, still bearded, reading his will in January 2000 along with Mohamed Atta. Not long after this, Jarrah shaved his beard and began to act in a more secular way, according to Şengün. Many of the future hijackers attempted to hide their radicalism and blend in with the population. To hide his travels to Afghanistan (which may have concerned security officials at international airports) Jarrah reported his passport stolen in February 2000 and received a blank duplicate, just as hijackers Atta and Shehhi had done the previous month.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: Jarrah dropped out of the Fachhochschule and began looking at flight schools. He claimed that this was to fulfill his childhood dream of being a pilot. After looking in several countries, he decided that none of the flight schools in Europe were adequate. On the advice of a childhood friend, he prepared to move to the United States.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: Jarrah apparently entered the United States on seven separate occasions, more than any other hijacker. On May 25, 2000, he applied for and received a five-year US B-1/B-2


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: (tourist/business) visa in Berlin. On June 27, 2000, he went to the US for the first time, arriving at Newark International Airport. He then traveled to Florida together with al-Shehhi and Atta, where the three men enrolled full-time at Huffman Aviation, in Venice. Jarrah did not apply for a change in his status, from a tourist visa to a student visa, thus violating his immigration status.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: Jarrah was enrolled in flight school for six months, from June 2000 to January 15, 2001. At the flight school, many of his classmates remember him fondly, describing him as kind and trustworthy, and remember him drinking beer occasionally. Jarrah was unique among the hijackers in that he did not live with any other hijackers, but rather lived with a German student named Thorsten Biermann. Biermann did not observe Jarrah acting particularly religiously or overtly politically. Jarrah occasionally flew back to Germany to visit Aysel Şengün, his Turkish-German girlfriend, and called or e-mailed her nearly every day.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: Rudi Dekkers, a Dutchman and the flight instructor of Huffman Aviation (which is now out of business), was interviewed after the attacks in 2001 by authorities. According to Dekkers, both Jarrah and Al-Shehhi were good students, unlike Atta, who misbehaved and refused to follow instructions. Dekkers told Atta that he was going to kick him out of the school if his behavior did not change, and as a response, Atta's behavior began to improve. Dekkers also said that he went with Al-Shehhi and Jarrah to a bar in Sarasota, Florida named Shamrock Pub after one of their flight lessons. At the bar, they talked to Dekkers about their plans after getting their pilot licenses, and Jarrah said to Dekkers "I got a job lined up and we are planning to become pilots."


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: Jarrah had obtained his license to fly small aircraft in August 2000, and began training to fly large jets later that year. He flew to Beirut to visit his family, and then to Germany to visit his girlfriend, Şengün. He brought her back to the United States for a ten-day visit, and she even attended a flight school session with him. In late January 2001, he again flew to Beirut to visit his father, who was ill, and then to Germany to visit his girlfriend. He returned to the United States once again in late February. His behavior was markedly different from the other hijackers, who broke off all familial and romantic relations.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: On his way back to the US, he passed through the United Arab Emirates, according to that country's officials, where he was initially reported as having been interviewed by authorities on January 30, 2001, at the request of the CIA. He allegedly admitted to having been to Afghanistan and Pakistan, although the CIA has since denied the claim and the 9/11 Commission Report does not mention it. The Florida flight school where Jarrah had been studying also said he was in school there until January 15, 2001.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: On May 6, Jarrah registered for a two-month membership at the US1 Fitness Center, a gym in Dania Beach, Florida—he would later renew his membership for two more months, and eventually had lessons in close-quarters combat. It is believed that sometime in that month, Ahmed al-Haznawi, who arrived on June 8, moved in with Jarrah. Jarrah rented a new apartment in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea after both men gave the landlord photocopies of their German passports, which he later turned over to the FBI.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: On June 25, Jarrah took Haznawi to Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on the advice of his landlord. Haznawi was treated by Dr. Christos Tsonas, who gave him antibiotics for a cut on his left calf. While he told staff that he had bumped into a suitcase, the media briefly reported it as a sign of cutaneous anthrax, hoping to show a link to the 2001 anthrax attacks, although the FBI later addressed the rumors, stating that "exhaustive testing did not support that anthrax was present anywhere the hijackers had been."


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: In mid-July 2001, some of the hijackers and members of the Hamburg cell gathered near Salou, Spain, for a period of a few days up to a couple of weeks. There seemed to be tension between Jarrah and Atta about the plot in its late stages. Atta had complained to Ramzi bin al-Shibh about his difficulty in getting through to Jarrah and his fear that Jarrah might withdraw from the plot completely. On July 25, Jarrah flew to Germany on a one-way ticket and again met with his girlfriend, the last time she saw him (though they would talk by telephone at least once more). Later, he met with bin al-Shibh who convinced Jarrah to go through with the operation. Jarrah arrived back in the United States on August 5, though other sources indicate that he took his pilot's test on August 2, having missed his sister's wedding to do so. On August 27, he checked into the Pin-Del Motel in Laurel, Maryland, only a mile away from the Valencia Motel, where four other hijackers were staying. On September 7, 2001, all four of the Flight 93 hijackers flew from Fort Lauderdale to Newark International Airport aboard Spirit Airlines.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: In the early morning hours of September 9, 2001, Jarrah was pulled over for speeding in Maryland and received a ticket. Jarrah phoned his parents later that day, mentioning that he had received the money order they had sent five days earlier. He told them he intended to see them on September 22 for his cousin's wedding.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: On September 10, Jarrah spent his final evening writing a letter to Şengün, with whom he had made marriage plans. This letter is widely interpreted as a suicide note. The letter did not reach Şengün; she had entered witness protection shortly after the attacks and her apartment was unattended. The letter was returned to the United States by the German postal service, where it was discovered and delivered to the FBI. The note contained the phrases "I did what I had to" and "It is a great honour and you will see the result, and everyone will be celebrating."


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: According to one source, Jarrah had set up a large mock cockpit made of cardboard boxes in his apartment just before the attacks.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: Prior to boarding the flight that morning at 5:01 AM, Jarrah in Newark placed a phone call to United Airlines Flight 175 hijacker pilot Marwan al-Shehhi in Boston that lasted 5 minutes (5:01-5:06 AM); this call was believed to state that the plan for the attacks was ready to begin. On September 11, 2001, Jarrah, Saeed al-Ghamdi, Ahmed al-Nami and Ahmed al-Haznawi boarded United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark International Airport at gate A17 without incident, and sat in first-class seats near the cockpit. Before boarding, Ziad Jarrah called his girlfriend Aysel Şengün from a public telephone at the airport, repeating the words "I love you" over and over. Due to a delay, the plane took off at 8:41a.m., five minutes before American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center. The pilot and crew were notified of the first two hijackings that day, and were told to be on alert. Within minutes, around 9:28a.m., Flight 93 was hijacked as well. The 9/11 Commission stated that Jarrah was the pilot.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: The voice of a pilot was heard by air traffic control telling passengers to remain seated. Jarrah announcing, "Ladies and gentlemen: here the captain. Please sit down, keep remaining seating. We have a bomb on board. So sit." At 9:39 a.m., the pilot announced over the radio, "This is the captain. Would like you all to remain seated. There is a bomb on board and are going back to the airport, and to have our demands, so please remain quiet."


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: At least two of the cellphone calls made by passengers indicate that all the hijackers they saw were wearing red bandannas, and indicated that one of the men, believed to be either Ahmed al-Haznawi or Ahmed al-Nami, had a box tied around his torso, and claimed there was a bomb inside. Passengers on the plane had learned the fates of the other hijacked planes through telephone calls; some decided to act, fearing their plane, too, would be used as a missile. A passenger uprising foiled the terrorists' plans, but failed to save the plane. According to the August 8, 2003, analysis of the plane's cockpit recording by the United States investigators, a group of passengers tried to break into the cockpit. To knock them off balance, Jarrah rolled the plane to the left and right. When this failed, he then pitched the nose forward and back. Jarrah stabilized the plane at 10:00:03. Five seconds later, he asked, "Is that it? Shall we finish it off?" Another hijacker responded, "No. Not yet. When they all come, we finish it off." The voice recorder recorded the sound of the passengers using the food cart as a battering ram against the cockpit door. Jarrah ceased the violent maneuvers at 10:01:00 and recited the takbir (an Islamic prayer) several times. He then asked another hijacker, "Is that it? I mean, shall we put it down?" The other hijacker responded, "Yes, put it in it, and pull it down." The passengers continued their assault and at 10:02:17, a male passenger said, "Turn it up!" A second later, a hijacker said, "Pull it down! Pull it down!" At 10:02:33, Jarrah made a desperate plea in Arabic, screaming "Hey! Hey! Give it to me! Give it to me! Give it to me! Give it to me! Give it to me! Give it to me! Give it to me! Give it to me!", possibly referring to the plane's yoke. The plane crashed just outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03:11, 125 miles (200 km) from Washington, D.C. All aboard died. The National Transportation Safety Board reported that the flight impacted at .


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: After September 11, Jarrah's girlfriend, Şengün, filed a missing person report in Bochum. Jarrah became a suspect as FBI agents found a "Ziad Jarrahi" in the flight manifest (the additional "i" at the end a possible misspelling).


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: There have been claims that Jarrah was not a hijacker but rather an innocent passenger or that he was not present on the plane and his identity was stolen. It has been pointed out that his behavior deviated from the profile presented by the other hijackers and that the passengers reported three and not four hijackers. However, the October 2006 emergence of a video shot on January 18, 2000, showing Jarrah recording his will alongside Mohamed Atta has cast heavy doubt on such claims.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: Shortly after the September 11 attacks, family and friends claimed that Jarrah did not exhibit the same "smoldering political resentments" or "cultural conservatism" as Mohamed Atta and the other hijackers. Although his family was Sunni Muslim, Jarrah was not raised with a background of religious conviction and did not hold to an obviously conservative lifestyle. Personnel at the flight school Jarrah attended described him as "a normal person". Jarrah called his family two days, and his girlfriend Aysel Şengün three hours, before boarding United Airlines Flight 93; Şengün described the conversation as "pleasant" and "normal". She also claimed that he never mentioned any names of the other hijackers. In his call two days before the attack, Jarrah told his family he would be coming home for a cousin's wedding. "It makes no sense," his uncle Jamal claimed. "He said he had even bought a new suit for the occasion." Jarrah's family in Lebanon claimed in September 2001 that he was an innocent passenger on the plane. His uncle, Jamal Jarrah, is currently a deputy in the Lebanese parliament and was appointed minister on December 18, 2016, and a member of the Future Movement, a pro-Saudi Arabian political party led by Saad Hariri. On January 2, 2012, on a televised interview on Future TV, MPJarrah denied his nephew's involvement in the 9-11 attacks, alluding to a conspiracy.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: On October 23, 2001, John Ashcroft claimed that Jarrah had shared a Hamburg apartment with Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, though German authorities that same day told the "Los Angeles Times" that they had no evidence that any of Jarrah's three apartments in Hamburg had been connected with the other hijackers. One high-ranking German police official stated, "The only information we have connecting the three Hamburg suspects is the FBI's assertion that there is a connection." In October 2006, however, a video surfaced showing Atta and Jarrah together in Afghanistan, clearly connecting Jarrah to the members of the Hamburg cell.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: The 9/11 Commission concluded without qualification that Jarrah was a hijacker on the plane when it crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.


title: Ziad Jarrah

text: In October 2006, an al-Qaeda video was released showing Jarrah and Mohamed Atta recording their wills in January 2000 in Osama Bin Laden's Tarnak Farms base near Kandahar, Afghanistan.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: The M551 "Sheridan" AR/AAV (Armored Reconnaissance/Airborne Assault Vehicle) was a light tank developed by the United States and named after General Philip Sheridan, of American Civil War fame. It was designed to be landed by parachute and to swim across rivers. It was armed with the technically advanced but troublesome M81/M81 Modified/M81E1 152 mm gun/launcher, which fired both conventional ammunition and the MGM-51 Shillelagh guided anti-tank missile.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: The M551 Sheridan entered service with the United States Army in 1967. At the urging of General Creighton Abrams, the U.S. Commander, Military Assistance Command Vietnam, at the time, the M551 was rushed into combat service to South Vietnam in January 1969. Later that year, M551s were deployed to units in Europe and South Korea. The Sheridan saw extensive combat in the Vietnam War, where problems with the platform became evident, particularly its poor survivability and reliability.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: Based on its experiences in Vietnam, the Army realized the shortcomings of the Sheridan, and after the war in 1975 began to eliminate the vehicle from its units in 1979. A modest fleet of vehicles remained in the 82nd Airborne Division and the National Guard. Various improvement programs were successfully undertaken to improve the Sheridan's reliability. Problems persisted with the 152 mm gun/launcher, and various efforts explored to replace it with a more conventional model. The Sheridan went on to serve in the invasion of Panama and the Gulf War. The Army sought to replace the Sheridan with the M8 Armored Gun System, but this was canceled in 1996, late in its development. The Sheridan was retired without a designated replacement in 1996. The Army acquired the M1128 Mobile Gun System to fulfill a similar requirement, but this is being retired in 2022. The Army current light tank acquisition program is Mobile Protected Firepower.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: A large bulk of Sheridans were retained in service at the National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California and as Armor Officer Basic training at Armor Training Center, then located at Fort Knox, Kentucky. They worked as simulated Soviet armored opposition force (OPFOR) to train U.S. military units on simulated tank on tank armored combat to test on combat effectiveness in a desert environment. They were finally retired from the NTC in 2003.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: In the immediate post-World War II era, the U.S. Army introduced the M41 Walker Bulldog into service to fill the role of a light tank. The lifespan of the M41 was fairly short; at 25 tons it was considered too heavy to be a true light tank, and had a rather short cruising range. Plans were started to build an even lighter replacement mounting the same gun, the T71 and T92. The T92 appeared to be the more promising of the two. However, as the prototypes were entering testing, information about the new Soviet PT-76 light tank became available. The PT-76 was amphibious, and soon there were demands that any U.S. light tank should be able to swim as well. The T92 could not be easily refitted for this role, so the Army canceled the program in 1958.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: In January 1959, the first concept studies were initiated for the armored reconnaissance/airborne assault vehicle that would replace both the M41 and M56 Scorpion self-propelled gun. By October 1959, 12 proposals had been received by the Ordnance Tank Automotive Command. Two proposals were downselected in December: One from Cadillac Motor Car Division of General Motors Corporation, and a joint venture of AAI Corporation and Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company. Mockups of both proposals were evaluated in May 1960.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: The AAI candidate had three crewmen, and weighed the closest to the 10-ton weight limit specified in the requirements. The Cadillac design was only slightly heavier, with four crew. The three-man turret of the Cadillac proposal was considered more effective than the two-man turret proposed by AAI. The weight limit was reset at 15 tons. In June 1960, Cadillac Motor Car Division signed a contract to develop their concept further, which was designated as the AR/AAV XM551. In August 1961, the Secretary of the Army approved the name "Sheridan," after Major General Philip Sheridan.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: A test bed underwent operations at Cleveland Tank Plant in December 1961. The decision to use the 152 mm caliber XM81 gun-launcher instead of a more conventional gun was driven by the desire to save weight. The XM81 weighed about half as much as the 105 mm caliber M68, and could fire both conventional and missile rounds. Testing of the XM81 began at Erie Army Depot in late 1961.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: By 1962, the Army realized that the MGM-51 Shillelagh missile system would not immediately be ready for the Sheridan, and so considered several alternative gun systems. These including conventional 76 mm, 90 mm and 105 mm options, as well as missile systems such as ENTAC and TOW. The Army ultimately decided to arm the Sheridan with just 152 mm conventional rounds until the Shillelagh was ready.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: The first of 12 pilots was delivered in June 1962. Pilots 1–3 comprised the first generation. With the second generation pilots 4–6, the band track was replaced with single-pin, link type tracks. An XM551 test bed turret with gun-launcher was mated to an M41 chassis, which began firing tests in August 1962 at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The third generation of pilots, starting with pilot 7, eliminated the water jet propulsion. Pilots 9–11 were delivered in 1964, and pilot 12 was delivered in February 1965.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: In the 1960s the Army was also developing the MBT-70 main battle tank with West Germany. The U.S. Army no longer used the heavy, medium, and light tank classifications. In 1960, with the deactivation of its last (M103) heavy tank battalion, and the fielding of the new M60 series tank, the U.S. Army had adopted a main battle tank (MBT) doctrine; a single tank filling all combat roles. The U.S. Army still retained the M41 Walker Bulldog light tank in the Army National Guard, but other than the units undergoing the transitional process, the regular army consisted of MBTs. Fearing Congress would balk at funding two developmental tank programs, the Army chose to designate the Sheridan as an armored reconnaissance vehicle rather than a light tank. The Army also believed "tank" too much evoked the main battle tank, a different role altogether, so the new project was instead officially classified as an "Armored Reconnaissance/Airborne Assault Vehicle."


title: M551 Sheridan

text: In April 1965 the Army awarded a four-year $114.5 million contract to the Cadillac Gage division of the General Motors (GM) for the production of the M109 howitzer and the XM551 General Sheridan. Limited production was approved in May, and then classified as "Standard A" in May 1966. Production took place at Cleveland Army Tank Automotive Plant. The first two production units were delivered to the Army in July. During development, the Marine Corps evaluated the Sheridan as a possible replacement for the M50 Ontos. The Corps determined that the Sheridan would be too costly.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: The Sheridan entered service in June 1967 with 1st Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment at Fort Riley. 2,426 Sheridans were planned. In the end, 1,662 Sheridans were built between 1966 and November 1970. Total cost of the M551 program was $1.3 billion. The M81 gun had problems with cracks developing near the breech after repeated firing, a problem that was later tracked to the "key" on the missiles that ran in a slot cut into the barrel. Most field units were modified to help address the problem, but later the modified M81E1 was introduced with a shallower slot, along with a matching modification to the missile, that cured the problem. The gun also has been criticized for having too much recoil for the vehicle weight, the second and even third road wheels coming clear off the ground when the main gun fired. In March 1967, a 105 mm howitzer XM103E7 and then a 76 mm gun was installed in the turret of an M551 at Rock Island Arsenal. Neither configuration was adopted.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: In January 1969 two squadrons (54 Sheridans) were deployed to the Republic of South Vietnam and assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry and one squadron of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment for combat testing. In March 1969, after the Army invoked secrecy in declining to disclose program costs, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) official said that development costs had reached $1.3 billion. Congressman Samuel S. Stratton criticized Army officials for the program's high costs, and accused officials of concealing cost figures to cover up for their own "bumbling ineptness." A GAO report leaked in May revealed the Army had fast-tracked the program to avoid budgetary scrutiny, despite indications by May 1966 that the tank's caseless ammunition was prone to cooking off. The problem had since then been resolved by a compressed-air system that forced hot ammunition residue from the breech, the Army told Congress. The Army said the Sheridan had performed well enough that it was planning to send hundreds more. A Congressional report in July identified $1.2 billion wasted on the M60 and Sheridan. The report attributed several Vietnam War casualties to Sheridan design faults, and said that the tank had been wholly unready for combat there "without extensive and costly retrofits."


title: M551 Sheridan

text: The vehicle designed to mount the gun had a steel turret and aluminum hull. Although the hull could deflect heavy machine gun fire of up to 12.7 mm AP, it was easily penetrated by rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), which could destroy the vehicle if the spalling contacted the caseless main gun rounds. Like the M113 armored personnel carrier, it was also vulnerable to mines.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: Swimming capability was provided by a flotation screen, similar to that used by the World War II, amphibious DD Tanks. The front armor was overlain by a wooden "surfboard", actually three folded layers, hinged together. This could be opened up into a sloping vertical surface in front of the driver providing a bow of a boat hull, about level with the top of the turret. Fabric formed the rest of the water barrier, folding up from compartments lining the upper corner where the side met the top of the hull, and held up at the back with poles. The front of the "hull" was provided with a plastic window, but in practice it was found that water splashing onto it made it almost useless, and the driver instead usually had to take steering directions from the vehicle commander. The M2 Bradley adopted a similar solution, but dropped it with upgraded armor.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: In the Vietnam War, firing the gun often adversely affected the delicate electronics, which were at the early stages of the transition to solid state devices, so the missile and its guidance system was omitted from vehicles deployed to South Vietnam. The expensive missile was fired in anger only in the Persian Gulf War's Operation Desert Storm, despite a production run of 88,000 units.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: In 1971, Frankford Arsenal awarded Hughes Aircraft Corporation a contract to begin producing the AN/VVG-1 laser rangefinder for the M551A1 upgrade.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: The U.S. Army staff in Washington had been recommending since 1966 to the commander of U.S. forces in South Vietnam, General Westmoreland, that the Sheridan should be used there. However, since the main gun ammunition was not available, he argued that it was simply a $300,000 machine gun platform. By 1968, the new, or soon to be, U.S. commander in South Vietnam, General Creighton Abrams, had been notified that the 152 mm shells were now available for the Sheridan. However, as General Abrams began to make preparations for the equipping of U.S. cavalry squadrons for the vehicle, the affected squadrons expressed their concerns that the new aluminum tanks were not only highly vulnerable to mines and anti-tank rocket fire, but they would not be as capable of "jungle busting" as the M48A3 medium tanks.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: In late 1968, General Abrams met with Colonel George S. Patton IV - the son of World War II General Patton - commander of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (11th ACR), the only full regiment of cavalry in South Vietnam. When Abrams mentioned the cavalry's concerns over the new vehicle, Patton recommended that the Sheridans be combat tested by a divisional cavalry squadron as well as a squadron from his own regiment; as the squadrons had completely different missions.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: The first Sheridans to arrive in South Vietnam did so in January 1969 and were accompanied by their factory representatives, instructors and evaluators as the new vehicles were issued to the 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, and the 1st Squadron of the 11th ACR. By the end of 1970, there were more than 200 Sheridans in South Vietnam, and they stayed in the field until the last U.S. armored cavalry unit, the 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment prepared for re-deployment back to the United States in April 1972. By the end of its combat debut in 1972, the Sheridan had seen extensive action in the Vietnam War, being assigned to nearly all armored cavalry squadrons involved in that conflict. In 1969, armored cavalry units (minus the 11th ACR, which retained its M48 tank companies) began replacing their M48 Patton tanks, which in turn were normally transferred to the Army of South Vietnam. The opinions of crews on Vietnam-era M551s were mixed at best and assessments from senior commanders were often negative. This was due largely to the high loss rate of Sheridans and casualty rates among crews; landmines and RPGs that would damage an M48 Patton tank, tended to destroy a Sheridan and either kill or wound most of its crew.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: A 1969 evaluation of the vehicles found that the M551 was employed in reconnaissance, night patrol and road clearing, accumulating 39,455 road miles and 520 combat missions, with a ready rate of 81.3 percent. Despite vulnerability to rockets and mines, it was judged worthy of applying modifications and equipping all cavalry squadrons with the Sheridan.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: In addition to the problems presented by aluminum construction, the Sheridan had a defect that no other common armored vehicle possessed: it fired caseless 152 mm main gun rounds. These rounds were "fixed", meaning that, unlike the artillery, the warhead was factory attached to the propellant, and if the warhead separated from the propellant during loading, which was not uncommon, the crewmen were instructed not to load the round. Sometimes, these unspent propellant charges remained on the turret floor due to the emergencies at the time, and in either case, all of the remaining serviceable 152 mm shells still remained caseless, albeit attached to their warheads, and sleeved into a re-usable white nine-ply nylon bag, which was form-fitted to hold the propellant portion of the shell. The white/silver-colored bag had a strap attached to the bottom, which the loader would grab and pull off prior to gently inserting the shell into the breech. Once a mine or RPG-type weapon created the spark, smoke and fire became imminent, and it became a matter of Standing Operating Procedure to abandon the tank immediately. On 15 February 1969, just one month after the Sheridan's arrival in South Vietnam, an M551 from the 3/4th Cavalry detonated a 25-pound pressure-triggered land mine, which ruptured its hull and ignited the 152 mm shells, resulting in a secondary explosion that destroyed the tank. In late 1969, nine Sheridans from the 4th Squadron, 12th Cavalry Regiment were fording a river near the DMZ, when three of the M551s detonated mines, completely destroying them. In March 1971, five Sheridans from the 11th ACR were lost in one day to RPG fire; all five vehicles burst into flames and were totally destroyed. It became a common scene to observe melted Sheridan hulls with their sunken steel turrets sitting at odd angles with their gun tubes pointing towards the sky in various parts of the country, either awaiting final disposition, or simply forgotten.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: The Sheridan had several advantages: it did not get stuck in the mud as often as the 52-ton M48 did, nor did it throw its track off as often. This alone was enough to win the tank crews' favor. The light weight and high mobility proved their worth, and the gun proved an effective anti-personnel weapon when used with either the M657 HE shell or the M625 canister round, which used thousands of flechettes as projectiles.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: The reliability of the engine system and gun of the tank was, however, not fully up to the task. Of 74 M551 sent to Vietnam in February 1969, by May there were recorded 16 serious mechanical faults, 41 failed shots, 140 defective ammunitions and 25 burned engines; the turret itself had 125 electric faults, several recoil system faults and instances of blown up guns. An additional problem was that much of the carried machine-gun ammunition had to be stored outside the turret as the internal space was extremely limited.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: Although an average M48 crew could fire as many as seventeen 90 mm shells during a "mad minute" (60 seconds with all guns firing-on command), the Sheridan was known to put out only two 152 mm shells during the same time frame. While the M48's 90 mm cannon fired fixed metallic cased rounds, the 152 mm was caseless. The caseless rounds needed air vents to clear the gun tube and breech prior to loading another round, while the M48 breech block opened as the used shell was ejected and closed as the new shell was shoved in. The faster the loader, the faster the Patton's gun could be fired. For the Sheridan, the loader had to wait for the mechanism. After firing, the loader would have to wait, as the breech slowly opened rearward then turned downward. After another instrument indicated that all turret systems were still operational, the loader would gently push the 152 mm fixed round into the breech and watch the breech block slowly rotate upward, then forward into the breech, then again, wait for the lights.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: Over 200 Sheridans were shipped to Vietnam. The Sheridan was much appreciated by the infantry, who were desperate for direct-fire support, and generally served in armored cavalry units along with ACAVs (M113s). Armor units consisted solely of tanks (minus headquarters company) and mechanized infantry units consisted solely of M113s. In this role, the real problem with the Sheridan was its limited ammunition load; normally, only 20 rounds and 8 missiles; although, as the M551s in Vietnam service were not equipped with missiles or their guidance equipment, this increased the basic load of conventional rounds. Sheridan losses were heavy during normal operations, largely due to land mines and anti-armor weapons, but were especially heavy after the start of the Cambodian Campaign in May 1970 in which, among other cavalry squadrons, the 11th ACR was thrown into the fight. The second heaviest losses were during the U.S. Army's final offensive of the war, operation Dewey Canyon II, when the Cavalry's remaining Sheridan squadrons met near disaster on the Laos border during the early months of 1971, in particular the 1/1st Cavalry.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: A common field-modification was to mount a large steel shield, known as an "ACAV set" (Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicle), around the commander's 50-cal. (12.7 mm) gun, allowing it to be fired with some level of protection. The driver has an unusual rotating hatch which has vision blocks when rotated forward. Included with the set was an extra layer of steel belly armor which was bolted onto the vehicle's bottom, although only covering from the front to half way to the end, possibly due to weight reasons.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: A standard modification made during the mid-70s was the addition of the "Cereal Bowl" commander's cupola. This mod came about due to the "broken rib" effect that occurred when the Sheridan fired conventional rounds; the recoil would pitch the commander against the armor plating, resulting in cracked ribs.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: The Army began to phase out the Sheridan in 1978, although at the time there was no real replacement. Nevertheless, the 82d Airborne Division was able to keep them until 1996. The Sheridan was the only "rapidly" air-deployable tank in the inventory. Their units were later upgraded to the M551A1 TTS model, including a thermal sighting system for the commander and gunner.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: In the early 1980s, the M551A1 was fitted with a visual modification kit to resemble Warsaw Pact vehicles from Soviet BMP-1, ZSU-23, T-55 to T-80s, at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California. These modified vehicles were used in part of the U.S. Army's Soviet opposition forces (OPFOR) by providing realistic ground training to U.S. military units about Soviet combat doctrine in a desert environment. The OPFOR Sheridans no longer fulfill that role, having been retired at the end of 2003 and subsequently scrapped or made available as "hard targets" or, in a few cases, as museum pieces. Many were dumped to create artificial reefs.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: The Sheridan's only air drop in combat occurred during the United States invasion of Panama (Operation Just Cause) in 1989, when 14 M551s were deployed with C Company, 3/73rd Armor, 82nd Airborne Division. Four M551s were secretly delivered to Howard Air Force Base in Panama aboard a C-5 Galaxy in December 1989, days before the invasion. They were attached to TF Bayonet (193rd Infantry Brigade), and attached down further to TF Gator. These Sheridans took part in the attack on the Comandancia, initially supported by fire from Quarry Heights, and later displacing forward into the city. As part of Team Armor, these Sheridans later provided support to JSOC elements as they secured high-value targets throughout Panama City. The remaining 10 Sheridans were delivered via C-141 low-velocity airdrop (LVAD) to Torrijos-Tocumen Airport some hours after H-hour. One of these was destroyed after its parachutes failed to deploy, while another was damaged. As of 2009, this marked the first and only combat air-drop of tanks in history.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: The Sheridan was praised for its performance in Panama. A U.S. after-action report noted that the Sheridan's "extreme psychological effect on enemy forces" who were apparently deterred from firing at U.S. forces reinforced by tanks.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: In the early days of Desert Shield, Sheridans were airlanded in Saudi Arabia before coalition heavy armor arrived by ship. The first Sheridans sent were the M551A1 model. The Army hastily sent 60 M551A1 TTS models with the thermal sight upgrade to replace the older models. The 3/73rd used the Sheridan as part of a flanking force in Operation Desert Storm, and saw tank-on-tank combat. Their role was limited to reconnaissance due to their age and light armor. It is likely that no more than six Shillelagh missiles were fired at Iraqi anti-tank guns or T-55s; this was the only occasion in which Shillelagh missiles were fired in anger, from the inventory of 88,000 missiles produced. Other than some overheating problems in the summer months of the buildup, the Sheridan suffered no mechanical breakdowns in combat and performed extremely well.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: During 1967 and 1968 the Australian Army trialled two Sheridans to determine if the type met a requirement for light armored fighting vehicles to serve with the Royal Australian Armoured Corps newly formed cavalry regiments. The main trials took place in the tropical Innisfail area of north Queensland between January and June 1968. In January 1969 the Minister for the Army announced that Australia would not purchase any Sheridans as the tanks did not meet the Army's requirements. The main shortcoming revealed in the trials concerned the safety of the combustible case. The two Sheridans were returned to the U.S. Army in early 1969, and the Australian Army met its requirement by fitting turrets from Alvis Saladin armoured cars to M113 armored personnel carriers.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: In 1977, TRADOC commander General Donn A. Starry met with Army Chief of Staff General Edward C. Meyer to convince him that the service should retire the Sheridan. Starry had commanded the 11th ACR in Vietnam, and knew the vehicle's shortcomings. Starry's arguments prevailed over those of Army Material Command commander General John R. Guthrie, a Sheridan defender, and Meyer agreed the Sheridan would be retired. The Army decided on the M60A1 as the service's interim successor until the M3 Bradley was ready. At the time, 567 Sheridans existed in USAREUR, 535 in the continental U.S., and 41 in the Pacific. The Army began converting units in Europe in 1978, and in the rest of the service by 1980. The Army sustained 140 Sheridans in the 82nd Airborne Division and the National Guard. Some Sheridans were kept in pre-positioned reserve.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: Several attempts to improve or replace the Sheridan have been made over the years since it was introduced. In 1976, DARPA (followed by TACOM) initiated the High Mobility/Agility (HIMAG) program. Several concepts were pursued, including the High Survivability Test Vehicle – Light and the Elevated Kinetic Energy gun system. The latter was trialled on a Sheridan hull in 1982. Following the Iran hostage crisis, the Rapid Deployment Force concept was pursued by both the Army and the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps initiated the Mobile Protected Weapon System (MPWS) program. In 1983, the Naval Surface Weapons Research Center Laboratory mounted a 105 mm caliber gun onto a Sheridan chassis. The Army initiated the Mobile Protected Gun program, and announced plans to modify Sheridans with 105 mm or 120 mm caliber guns. Neither program was pursued further; The Army project was canceled in 1985.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: From 1978 to 1980, under the joint Army–Marine Corps Advanced Antiarmor Vehicle Evaluation (ARMVAL), TACOM rebuilt 10 Sheridans with the General Motors 8V53T diesel engine and improved suspension. The vehicle's armament and some armor was removed. The uprated engine and improved suspension improved the power-to-weight ratio and cross-country mobility. The Army also evaluated a fully stabilized Staget sighting system.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: In 1987, the Army tested a version of the LAV-25, classified as the M1047. The Army determined that these were unsuitable for LAPES, and could not match the firepower of the Sheridan. Congress did not favor the M1047, though a few were deployed with the 3/73rd Armor in the Gulf War. The Marine Corps also developed the LAV-105 to meet its requirements, but later canceled that project as well. In 1992, the Army selected FMC Corporation to produce the Armored Gun System (AGS), later type classified as the M8 Armored Gun System. The AGS was canceled in 1996 by the Pentagon before it could enter production. United Defense proposed the AGS as its mobile gun system variant in the Interim Armored Vehicle program. In 2000, the Army instead selected a variant of the General Dynamics' LAV III, later type-classified as the M1128 Mobile Gun System. The Mobile Gun System's problematic service history led to the vehicle's planned retirement in 2022. The Army has initiated development of a light tank acquisition program called Mobile Protected Firepower.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: Building a vehicle lighter than the T92 required an innovative solution for the main armament. A gun firing kinetic energy penetrators to defeat modern tanks at reasonable range was too large for the XM551; gun weight was typically dependent on caliber and muzzle velocity. This was solved by arming the XM551 with a 152 mm M81 gun firing low velocity M409 HEAT rounds. The large caliber ensured it would produce a powerful shaped charge effect capable of penetrating tank armor, since velocity has no effect on shaped charge penetration, while the short gun would reduce overall weight.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: The gun was ideal for infantry support. The large, low velocity gun could fire a large explosive shell or canister shot. In comparison, high-velocity anti-tank guns over-penetrated soft targets, while smaller caliber weapons could not carry as great a payload.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: The M81E1 was not ideal in medium- and long-range tank engagements as its low velocity produced extended flight times, and made it difficult to lead moving targets. Therefore, the gun was also designed to fire MGM-51 Shillelagh anti-tank missiles. The low launch velocity against longer-ranged targets was not an issue for the missile. However, the MGM-51 was considered a risky project.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: A number of existing vehicles already mounted only ATGMs, or alternately recoilless rifles like the M50 Ontos, but these typically had limited utility in the infantry support role, or in the case of Ontos could not be reloaded from within the vehicle. The XM551 appeared to offer a superior balance between anti-tank and infantry support.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: The Sheridan was powered by a large 300-hp (224 kW) Detroit Diesel 6V53T diesel engine, and a "flat track" (no support rollers). The XM551 thus had an excellent power-to-weight ratio and mobility, able to run at speeds up to 72 km/h (45 mph). However, the vehicle proved to be very noisy and unreliable under combat conditions.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: The Sheridan could swim across a river that was about 46 m (50 yards) wide. Tanks in the Patton series (M46, M47, M48), as well as the M60 tank could not perform these operations; they would have to crawl along the river bottoms using snorkels. Not by design, it was found that the swimming hardware acted to reduce the effectiveness of RPG hits, but it was rarely used in Vietnam.


title: M551 Sheridan

text: The Sheridan can be rigged for low-velocity airdrop from C-130 (19,000 kg, 42,000 lb max load), C-141 aircraft (17,460 kg, 38,500 lb max load), and the C-5. Many films exist showing the Sheridan being pulled out of a C-130 Hercules transport by brake chutes and skidding to a stop. The Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System (LAPES) is a somewhat risky maneuver that allows accurate delivery onto a field when landing is not possible, and the practice was stopped in the late 1990s. The tank is strapped down to a special pallet which absorbs most of the landing impact. The crew does not ride in the tank during extraction, but parachutes from another plane. On landing, they go to their tank, release the lines, and drive it away.


title: Direct-to-video

text: Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was prevalent before streaming platforms came to dominate the TV and movie distribution markets.


title: Direct-to-video

text: Because inferior sequels or prequels of larger-budget films may be released direct-to-video, review references to direct-to-video releases are often pejorative. Direct-to-video release has also become profitable for independent filmmakers and smaller companies. Some direct-to-video genre films (with a high-profile star) can generate well in excess of $50 million revenue worldwide.


title: Direct-to-video

text: A production studio may decide not to generally release a TV show or film for several possible reasons: a low budget, a lack of support from a TV network, negative reviews, its controversial nature, that it may appeal to a small niche market, or a simple lack of general public interest. Studios, limited in the annual number of films to which they grant cinematic releases, may choose to pull the completed film from the theaters, or never exhibit it in theaters at all. Studios then generate revenue through video sales and rentals. Direct-to-video films are marketed mostly through colorful box covers, instead of advertising, and are not covered by publications like "Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide".


title: Direct-to-video

text: Direct-to-video releases have historically carried a stigma of lower technical or artistic quality than theatrical releases. Some films released direct-to-video are films which have been completed but were never released in movie theaters. This delay often occurs when a studio doubts a film's commercial prospects justify a full cinema release, or because its release window has closed. In film industry slang, such films are referred to as having been "vaulted". Like B-movies shown in drive-in theaters in the mid-20th century, direct-to-video films employ both former stars and young actors who may become stars later.


title: Direct-to-video

text: Direct-to-video releases can be done for films which cannot be shown theatrically due to controversial content, or because the cost involved in a theatrical release is beyond the releasing company.


title: Direct-to-video

text: Animated sequels and feature-length episodes of animated series are also often released in this fashion. The first feature length animated film to be released direct-to-video in the United States was "" in 1992. The practice of creating and releasing regular fiction specifically for video did not really take off until 1994, with Disney's "The Return of Jafar" and Universal's "", neither of which was intended to hit theaters at any point in its production.


title: Direct-to-video

text: By 1994, an average of six new direct-to-video films appeared each week. Erotic thrillers and R-rated action films were the two most successful genres. Family films became more important than such genres later in the 1990s, as retailers stocked more copies of blockbuster films instead of more titles. According to the "Los Angeles Times":


title: Direct-to-video

text: Some horror films that are unsuccessful in theaters, like "Witchcraft", begin successful direct-to-video series. Studios may also release sequels or spin-offs to a successful live action film straight to DVD, due to a lack of budget in comparison to the original.


title: Direct-to-video

text: During the Golden Age of Porn in the 1970s, many pornographic films were released in theatres, some of which became some of the highest-grossing films in their release years, and in the pornography industry altogether. Toward the 1980s, porn began to shift to video release, because video allowed the producers to work on extremely low budgets and dispense with some film production elements, like scripts, and the increased privacy and convenience of the format change were preferred by the target market.


title: Direct-to-video

text: During the late 1990s and onward, pornographers began releasing content through paysites on the Internet.


title: Direct-to-video

text: Occasionally, a studio that makes a movie that was prepared as a direct-to-video film will release it theatrically at the last minute due to the success of another film with a similar subject matter or an ultimate studio decision. "" is an example of this. However, despite the movie's critically acclaimed success, its box-office performance was very poor, which has been attributed to the last minute nature of its theatrical release. The film had much better commercial success in its subsequent home video releases.


title: Direct-to-video

text: Other times, a direct-to-video movie may get a limited theatrical screening in order to build excitement for the actual release of the video such as was done for 2010's "", and "Planet Hulk", 2016's "" or 2013's "Sharknado".


title: Direct-to-video

text: As DVDs gradually replaced VHS videocassettes, the term "direct-to-DVD" replaced "direct-to-video" in some instances. However, the word "video" does not necessarily refer to videocassettes. Many publications continue to use the term "direct-to-video" for DVDs or Blu-rays. Both disc-based release types may also be referred to as "direct-to-disc". A new term sometimes used is "DVD premiere" (DVDP). Such films can cost as little as $20 million, about a third of the average cost of a Hollywood release. According to "Variety", "" sold a million copies in one week, despite retaining only two actors from the original trilogy.


title: Direct-to-video

text: Some direct-to-DVD releases recently have tended to feature actors who were formerly bankable stars. In 2005, salaries for some of these direct-to-DVD actors in the multimillion-dollar range from $2 to $4 million (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and $4.5 to $10 million (Steven Seagal), in some cases exceeding the actors' theatrical rates.


title: Direct-to-video

text: With the increasing prominence of digital distribution platforms in the 2000s and 2010s, direct-to-digital releases began to emerge alongside, or in lieu of home video. In November 2007, Ed Burns' "Purple Violets" became the first film to "premiere" exclusively for sale on iTunes Store, being exclusive to the platform for a month. It had premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, where it was reviewed positively, but only received modest distribution offers. At the time, it was not very common for consumers to make digital movie purchases.


title: Direct-to-video

text: As part of a push by the service towards original content, the subscription video on demand service Netflix began to acquire feature films for distribution on its service in the 2010s, including the 2013 documentary "The Square", and its first feature film in 2015 — "Beasts of No Nation". Netflix pursued a simultaneous release strategy for its films, partnering with a distributor for a limited theatrical release (in order to maintain eligibility for awards requiring theatrical release, such as the Academy Awards) simultaneous with their availability to subscribers. As this practice violates the traditional release windows mandated by the cinema industry, major chains have typically declined to screen the films. Since 2018, Netflix has partially backpedaled from this strategy, giving its films a one-month theatrical run before their premiere on the Netflix service.


title: Direct-to-video

text: Unique circumstances have also resulted in direct-to-digital releases, sometimes alongside a limited theatrical release; the 2014 film "The Interview" was released simultaneously on digital and at selected cinemas, after major chains dropped the film due to terrorist threats by a hacking group believed to have ties to North Korea (whose regime is satirized in the film). The group had also leaked confidential data from the internal servers of the film's distributor, Sony Pictures.


title: Direct-to-video

text: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in worldwide closures of cinemas due to economic restrictions and guidance against public gatherings, which prompted direct-to-digital releases for several major films; the Chinese film "Lost in Russia" was acquired by ByteDance for 630 million yuan (almost 100 million in US dollars) and streamed on its platforms (including TikTok) for free in lieu of a theatrical release, as part of a larger relationship with the company and the film's distributor Huanxi Media. A number of U.S. films were shifted directly to video-on-demand rentals in lieu of a theatrical release,"" while some have been sold directly to subscription services, including Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video.


title: Direct-to-video

text: OV ("original video") are movies made for direct-to-video release in the Japanese market. OVA ("original video animation") is distinguished from OVM ("original video movies") or V-Cinema, which usually refer to non-animated works. Different production studios may use other labels like "V drama".


title: Direct-to-video

text: The OVA market developed in the mid-1980s. The lax restrictions and censorship in comparison to broadcast television appealed to filmmakers, allowing them to include more controversial content, as the films did not need to rely on sponsored advertisements for financial support. The result was animated films with greater sexual, violent, or political content. The market continued to expand during the Japanese asset price bubble and began to decline with the collapse of the bubble in the late 1980s and early 1990s.


title: Direct-to-video

text: With the rise of VHS home video and the decline of the Japanese economy in the late 1980s, film studios struggled to recoup investments on big-budget films. Inspired by the success of OVAs, Toei released its first V-Cinema, "Crime Hunter", in March 1989. Following Toei's success, other studios began to release a slue of direct-to-video movies. Relaxed censorship in V-Cinema gave way to the premier and rise of expressive auteur directors such as Takashi Miike, Hideo Nakata, Shinji Aoyama, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa. As the release of these titles were outside of usual distribution, studios and directors worked quickly to capitalize on niche markets or upcoming and current trends to increase financial returns. This period of history in Japanese cinema has been described by film journalist Tom Mes as "a far more diverse and vibrant film scene [than previous eras]". By 1995, the V-cinema industry was in decline, but the explosion in quantity and variety of such movies established and cemented genres like J-horror and yakuza films.


title: Direct-to-video

text: The success of OVAs and V-Cinema has resulted in less stigma regarding direct-to-video releases in Japan than in western markets. While there are still OVA and V-Cinema releases, the market is considerably smaller than it was in the 1980s and 1990s.


title: Direct-to-video

text: In the mid-to-late 2010s, low-budget B-movies that are made exclusively for digital streaming became a trend in China; these films are called "Online Big Movies" ("OBM"; 网络大电影 in Chinese, or simply 网大). The word "Big" in the name was meant to be sardonic, as most of these films are often made on a very low budget and featuring mostly unknown cast members and sometimes nonprofessional actors. However, increasingly, the budget for these films have been slowly climbing up, due to the success of these films on digital distribution platforms; the budget for these films can now range from less than 1 million yuan to upwards of 10 or 20 million yuan. Although these "Online Big Movies" rarely features well-known actors, in recent years, many "Online Big Movies" have hired veteran actors from Hong Kong action cinema and Taiwanese cinema to join its cast. These movies are also to be differentiated from films that are made for theatrical release but were later acquired by digital streaming services, in that these "Online Big Movies" are produced by internet companies with the sole intent of digital release.


title: Direct-to-video

text: In additional to the digital distribution of these films in China, many of the "Online Big Movies" have also been released on digital platforms outside of China, such as on YouTube. Several YouTube channels, such as Q1Q2 Movie Channel Official and YOUKU MOVIE are popular channels that distributes these "Online Big Movies".


title: Hüsker Dü

text: Hüsker Dü () was an American punk rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1979. The band's continual members were guitarist/vocalist Bob Mould, bassist/vocalist Greg Norton, and drummer/vocalist Grant Hart. They first gained notability as a hardcore punk band, and later crossed over into alternative rock. Mould and Hart were the band's principal songwriters, with Hart's higher-pitched vocals and Mould's baritone taking the lead in alternating songs.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: The band issued their debut studio album "Everything Falls Apart" on Reflex Records in 1983 and subsequently released three LPs and an EP on the independent label SST Records, including the critically acclaimed "Zen Arcade" in 1984. Hüsker Dü signed to major label Warner Bros. Records in 1986 to release their final two studio albums. They disbanded in January 1988. Mould later released two solo albums before forming Sugar in the early 1990s, while Hart released a solo album on SST and later formed Nova Mob.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: After their respective bands broke up in the mid-1990s, Mould and Hart continued doing solo work, the latter until his death in 2017. Norton was initially less active musically after Hüsker Dü and focused on being a restaurateur instead. He returned to the recording industry in 2006.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: The members of Hüsker Dü first performed together when Grant Hart, Bob Mould, Greg Norton, and keyboardist Charlie Pine began playing in 1979 in a band called Buddy and the Returnables. At the time, Mould was a freshman at Macalester College and frequented Cheapo Records, a Saint Paul record store where Hart was a sales clerk. Hart and Norton had originally met while applying for the same job, which Norton eventually got. Hart and Mould bonded over a shared love of the Ramones, and soon after they enlisted Norton and Pine to form a band. They began gigging, playing mostly cover songs, some classic rock, and frequent Ramones tunes. Unbeknownst to Pine, the remaining band members disliked the sound of the band with Pine's keyboards and began practicing without him, writing a few originals.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: The new name originated during a rehearsal of the Talking Heads's "Psycho Killer." Unable to recall the French portions sung in the original (e.g., "Qu'est-ce que "), they instead started shouting any foreign-language words they could remember, including the title of the popular 1970s memory board game Hūsker Dū? (the phrase without diacritics meaning "do you remember?" in Danish and Norwegian). The name stuck, and they added heavy metal umlauts to it. Mould said that they liked the somewhat mysterious qualities of the name and that it set them apart from other hardcore punk groups with names like "Social Red Youth Dynasty Brigade Distortion." Mould also said that, while Hüsker Dü enjoyed hardcore punk in general, they never thought of themselves as exclusively a hardcore group and that their name was an attempt to avoid being pigeonholed as such.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: Hart, Mould, and Norton fired Pine during their first official performance on March 30, 1979, and continued as a trio under the new name. Mould has written that he considers the band's first "real gig" to have been May 17, 1980, at the renowned punk club Jay's Longhorn Bar.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: By 1980, the band was performing regularly in Minneapolis, and their music evolved into a fast, ferocious, primal sound, making them one of the original hardcore punk bands of the Midwest. Through heavy touring, they soon caught the attention of punk trailblazers including Black Flag and Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra, who helped introduce Hüsker Dü to new fans. Black Flag guitarist/songwriter Greg Ginn later signed the band to his label, SST Records.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: The band started releasing singles on Terry Katzman's Reflex Records in 1981. Their first two albums, "Land Speed Record" and "Everything Falls Apart", brought much critical praise. Regular touring brought them to the attention of the Minutemen, who released their debut and the "In a Free Land" single on their label, New Alliance Records. This, in turn, led to the band signing with SST Records.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: The intense but varied "Metal Circus" EP/mini-album was released in 1983. Hüsker Dü's more melodic take on hardcore struck a chord with college students, and various tracks from "Metal Circus", particularly Hart's "Diane," were put into rotation by dozens of campus radio stations across the U.S. In addition, on "Metal Circus" the band showed more invention, skill, and melody than it did over the course of their previous full album, "Everything Falls Apart".


title: Hüsker Dü

text: While the band at this time was still firmly rooted in the loud, fast punk rock style, the trio were beginning to experiment with songs featuring a more melodic, though no less aggressive, sound. "The early Hüsker stuff was all very fast and furious," Mould reflected in 1997, "as a result of being 18 and not really proficient with the instruments. But I was always writing with an ear to melody."


title: Hüsker Dü

text: By 1983, the members of Hüsker Dü wanted to create music outside of the confines and restrictions of hardcore. In an interview with "Matter" in 1983, Mould told interviewer Steve Albini, "We're going to try to do something bigger than anything like rock & roll and the whole puny touring band idea. I don't know what it's going to be, we have to work that out, but it's going to go beyond the whole idea of 'punk rock' or whatever."


title: Hüsker Dü

text: The following year, Hüsker Dü recorded the double album "Zen Arcade" in 45 hours for the cost of $3,200. "Zen Arcade" is a concept album following a boy who leaves home to face a harsh and unforgiving world. Its artistic and conceptual ambitions were a great stretch given the purist sentiment then prevalent in U.S. punk rock. "Zen Arcade" received critical praise and significant mainstream music press attention, ending up on several year-end best-of lists. It also helped expand the band's audience beyond the punk community. In his review for "Rolling Stone," David Fricke described "Zen Arcade" as "the closest hardcore will ever get to an opera ... a kind of thrash "Quadrophenia"."


title: Hüsker Dü

text: In 1989, "Zen Arcade" was ranked No. 33 on "Rolling Stone"s list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s. SST erred on the side of caution and initially pressed between 3,500 and 5,000 copies of the album, but the record sold out a few weeks into the band's tour in support of the record. The album remained out of stock for months afterward, which affected sales and frustrated the band.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: Hüsker Dü started recording "Zen Arcade"s follow-up album, "New Day Rising", just as "Zen Arcade" was released. The band's next album, "Flip Your Wig", was released nine months after "New Day Rising". "Flip Your Wig" became the first album released on an independent record label to top the "CMJ" album chart.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: At year's end, both "New Day Rising" and "Flip Your Wig" ranked in the top ten of the "Village Voice" annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll. The swift succession of dynamic albums highlighted the creative evolution of the band.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: During the recording sessions for "Flip Your Wig", Warner Bros. Records approached Hüsker Dü and offered the group a recording contract. The band felt it had hit a sales ceiling that it could break through only with the help of a larger label. The promise of the band retaining complete creative control over its music convinced the band to sign with the label. Mould also cited distribution problems with SST as a reason for the move, noting that sometimes there were no records to sign at promotional events.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: Hüsker Dü was not expected to sell a large number of records. Rather, Warner Bros. valued the group's grassroots fanbase and "hip" status, and by keeping the overhead low, the label anticipated the band would turn a profit.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: "Candy Apple Grey" was their first major-label album, though Warner Bros. had initially lobbied to release "Flip Your Wig" until the band opted for its release on SST. "Candy Apple Grey" was the first Hüsker Dü album to chart on the Billboard Top 200, but despite receiving exposure on radio as well as MTV, it could get no higher than No. 140.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: Creative and personal tensions between Mould and Hart intensified when Mould began assuming most of the band's managerial duties following the suicide of manager David Savoy on the eve of the band's 1987 tour in support of the double album "." In September 2006, Hart told Britain's "Q" magazine, "I take full responsibility for [Savoy's] suicide. It was a direct result of the pressure of working for Bob and me, because he was being forced into a two-faced situation." Mould called Savoy's suicide "the beginning of the end."


title: Hüsker Dü

text: The promotional tour for "Warehouse: Songs and Stories" included some of the highest profile television appearances in the band's career, including performances on "The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers" and the NBC morning news program "Today".


title: Hüsker Dü

text: The band dissolved after a show in Columbia, Missouri, on the band's 1987 tour. Hart was trying to quit heroin using a supply of methadone, but the bottle had leaked. Hart still played the show, but Mould and Norton were concerned he would be unable to play the remaining shows due to withdrawal. While Hart insisted he could perform, Mould had already canceled the remaining dates. Hart quit the band four days later. Mould has said that the breakup was about "three people going their separate ways," referring to Hart's drug use and new relationship, Norton's recent marriage and new business, and Mould himself having just quit a lifelong drinking habit. Mould decided to officially end the band on January 26, 1988 during a discussion at Hart's parents' home.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: "The Living End", a live collection taken from the band's final tour, was released six years after the band's demise. Mould has been quoted as saying that he has never listened to this album.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: Mould and Hart produced solo albums and formed the bands Sugar and Nova Mob, respectively. Mould also joined Richard Morel in the band Blowoff. In 2005, after several years of eschewing playing shows with an electric band, Mould returned to touring with a band and included Hüsker Dü and Sugar songs in his sets. His album "Silver Age", which came soon after the reissue of Sugar's two full-length albums in 2012, was widely acclaimed as a return to form. Mould's backing band features Jason Narducy (Verbow, Split Single) and Jon Wurster (Superchunk, The Mountain Goats) on bass and drums, respectively. Norton formed the band Grey Area, played with Shotgun Rationale, and became a chef. He and his ex-wife Sarah owned a restaurant in Red Wing, Minnesota, called The Nortons', until 2010. In addition to his restaurant duties, in 2006 Norton returned to music as the bassist for the Minnesota-based band The Gang Font, featuring Interloper. The group released an eponymous album in 2007. In 2016, Norton also joined the Wisconsin indie rock band Porcupine, actively performing and recording with them.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: On October 21, 2004, Mould and Hart reunited at a Minneapolis benefit concert for ailing Soul Asylum bassist Karl Mueller, who had been receiving treatment for cancer. At the end of what had been scheduled as a solo set by Mould, Mould brought out Hart to play "Hardly Getting Over It" and "Never Talking to You Again." Mould noted that the performance should not ignite any "false hope" for a reunion.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: On October 12, 2015, Hüsker Dü launched an official website, which is an online merchandise store. Norton told the "Star Tribune" that he, Mould, and Hart had worked out a licensing agreement for their music and that a Facebook page is "likely to go online soon." When asked about a possible Hüsker Dü reunion, Norton replied, "The main thing is, there's ongoing communication between the three of us now."


title: Hüsker Dü

text: Hart died of liver cancer on September 13, 2017, at the age of 56. In a public statement, Mould remembered his former bandmate as "a gifted visual artist, a wonderful storyteller, and a frighteningly talented musician. Everyone touched by his spirit will always remember."


title: Hüsker Dü

text: On November 10, 2017, the Numero Group label released the three-CD/four-LP box set "Savage Young Dü", which spans the band's first four years, containing demos, studio, and live recordings.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: On March 30, 2019, the 40th anniversary of the first Hüsker Dü show in St. Paul, Bob Mould played a concert in St. Paul, in which he was supported by the band Porcupine, featuring Greg Norton. To commemorate the occasion, both former Hüsker Dü members paid tribute to their late bandmate Grant Hart, and included one of his songs in their sets, with Mould performing "Never Talking to You Again" and Porcupine performing their cover of "Standing by the Sea".


title: Hüsker Dü

text: Hüsker Dü started as a hardcore punk band known for their speed and intensity. While the band included some slower material earlier in its career, Hüsker Dü developed a fast repertoire as a result of having less time to play while billed as an opening act, and to antagonize their audience when it headlined shows. "[T]here was a point where we were, like, 'Let's see how fast we can play,'" Norton recalled. "I guess we were just trying to blow people away." Hüsker Dü was particularly influenced by punk bands like D.O.A., Dead Kennedys, and The Fartz after seeing them play. "NME" journalist Andy Gill contended that Hüsker Dü's characteristic sound crystalized on the "Metal Circus" EP, incorporating "thunderbuck, hiccup" drums, a melodic yet solid bass, and "carillions [sic] of distorted guitar, with shouted vocals rasping hoarsely from deep in the mix." He argued that what set them apart from other punk bands was "the way they mix those same structural devices in ways that shouldn't work, combining elements of several genres in one song."


title: Hüsker Dü

text: As the band's career progressed, Hüsker Dü emphasized melody in their songs. Unlike other hardcore bands, Hüsker Dü did not disavow classic rock. "You know the whole deal with tearing down the old to make room for the new?" Hart posited. "Well, music isn't city planning." The band covered 1960s hits like Donovan's "Sunshine Superman" and the Byrds' "Eight Miles High" early in their career. As the band members progressed as musicians, they discovered they were able to play at slower tempos while still maintaining the rhythm, allowing for extended melodies.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: Hart and Mould were the band's songwriters. Both wrote their songs separately and at a prodigious pace. In later years, Hart accused Mould of making sure his songs comprised no more than 45 percent of the material on an album. They designed their logo to represent their common train of thought—a circle enclosing three parallel horizontal lines with a vertical line connecting them. The circle symbolized the band: the three lines were the individual members, and the intersecting line was the common thread of creativity that connected them.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: Critically, the band has been labeled as primarily hardcore punk, post-hardcore, punk rock, and alternative rock. They have also been labeled as noise pop and post-punk.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: Hüsker Dü is widely regarded as one of the key bands to emerge from the 1980s American indie scene. Music writer Michael Azerrad asserted in his 2001 book "Our Band Could Be Your Life" that Hüsker Dü was the key link between hardcore punk and the more melodic, diverse music of college rock that emerged. Azerrad wrote, "Hüsker Dü played a huge role in convincing the underground that melody and punk rock weren't antithetical."


title: Hüsker Dü

text: The band also set an example by being one of the first bands from the American indie scene to sign to a major record label, which helped establish college rock as "a viable commercial enterprise."


title: Hüsker Dü

text: Kim Deal joined Pixies in response to a classified ad placed by Black Francis seeking a female bassist who liked both Peter, Paul and Mary and Hüsker Dü.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett said in VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" that he owned a Hüsker Dü live tape and was impressed by their talent. During the same documentary, The Smashing Pumpkins' frontman, Billy Corgan, also praised them for their energy and punk rock attitude.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic said that Nirvana's musical style was "nothing new; Hüsker Dü did it before us."


title: Hüsker Dü

text: Hüsker Dü influenced the Northern Irish band Therapy?. Therapy? covered "Diane" on their 1995 album, "Infernal Love". The song was released as a single. Frontman Andy Cairns listed "Zen Arcade" as his seventh-favorite album of all time. In 2013, Minnesota-based cycling company 45NRTH released a fat bike tire named Hüsker Dü in honor of the band.


title: Hüsker Dü

text: In an interview with Dave Fanning for RTÉ's "Planet Rock Profiles" before the Foo Fighters' appearance at the 1996 Féile Festival, Dave Grohl said of "Zen Arcade", "That album was amazing. I mean, Black Flag was early on, and then when I discovered "Zen Arcade" I thought, "God, these people write songs, man". It's amazing. It's like the Byrds meets Black Flag, and it just blew me away, and the songs just stuck in your head forever and they were just amazing. When that album, "Zen Arcade", was recorded...I think it was recorded just straight, and I think they all took acid and recorded it in 48 hours. They did the whole album. That is what I had heard. And, to me, I was just like, "God, these people are genius", you know? "This is... this is amazing"."


title: Hüsker Dü

text: Hüsker Dü has been honored with a star on the outside mural of the Minneapolis nightclub First Avenue; Mould and Hart have also received stars for their solo work, making the band one of the few to be represented multiple times on the mural. The stars recognize performers that have played sold-out shows or have otherwise demonstrated a major contribution to the culture at the iconic venue. Receiving a star "might be the most prestigious public honor an artist can receive in Minneapolis," according to journalist Steve Marsh.


title: Yadier Molina

text: Yadier Benjamín Molina (; born July 13, 1982), nicknamed "Yadi", is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball catcher who played his entire career with the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB). Widely considered one of the greatest defensive catchers of all time for both his blocking ability and his caught-stealing percentage, Molina won nine Rawlings Gold Gloves and six Fielding Bible Awards. A two-time World Series champion, he played for Cardinals teams that made 12 playoff appearances and won four National League pennants. Molina also played for the Puerto Rican national team in four World Baseball Classic (WBC) tournaments, winning two silver medals.


title: Yadier Molina

text: When he retired after the 2022 season, Molina ranked first all-time among catchers in putouts and second all-time among catchers with 130 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS); among active players, he ranked first with 845 assists, 40.21% of runners caught stealing, and 55 pickoffs. As a hitter, Molina accrued more than 2,100 hits, 150 home runs, and 1,000 runs batted in (RBIs); he batted over .300 in five seasons. Other distinctions include selection to ten MLB All-Star Games, four Platinum Glove Awards, and one Silver Slugger Award. He was a two-time selection to the All-WBC Tournament Team and was a member of the 2018 MLB Japan All-Star Series.


title: Yadier Molina

text: The product of a baseball family, Molina was born in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. His father was an amateur second baseman and the all-time hits leader in Puerto Rican baseball, and his two older brothers, Bengie and José, also developed into standout defensive catchers with lengthy MLB careers. Long before playing professionally, Molina's pitch-handling and throwing skills caught the attention of scouts. The Cardinals' fourth-round selection in the 2000 MLB draft, he quickly showed one of the strongest and most accurate arms in the game after starting play in the major leagues. Having earned a reputation as a team leader throughout his career, Molina formulated pregame plans to handle opposing hitters, including pitching strategies and fielder positioning.


title: Yadier Molina

text: Molina appeared on five NL Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) ballots, including finishing fourth in 2012 and third in 2013. When Hurricane Maria ravaged the island of Puerto Rico in September 2017, Molina began relief efforts for victims of the catastrophe, consequently receiving the Roberto Clemente Award in 2018.


title: Yadier Molina

text: Yadier Benjamín Molina was born on July 13, 1982, in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, the youngest of three boys to Gladys Matta and Benjamín Molina, Sr. He attended Maestro Ladislao Martínez High School in Vega Alta. Baseball in Puerto Rico is a significant part of the island's culture. Molina's father played second base as an amateur and worked as a tools technician 10 hours per day in a Westinghouse factory. The all-time hits leader in Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente (or "Doble-A Beísbol") history, the elder Molina delivered a .320 career batting average and gained election to the Puerto Rican baseball hall of fame in 2002. Molina's two older brothers, Bengie and José, also developed into distinguished defensive catchers with lengthy careers in Major League Baseball (MLB), and each of the three won at least one World Series championship.


title: Yadier Molina

text: Each day when he completed work, Molina's father went directly home, ate dinner with his family, and crossed the street from his family's home with his sons and his son’s friend Carlos Diaz to Jesús Mambe Kuilan Park, spending countless evening hours teaching them the fundamentals of the sport. He remained hopeful that his sons would become professional baseball players.


title: Yadier Molina

text: Molina's catching aptitude showed as early as age five and developed quickly. Nonetheless, he developed great competence in playing all over the baseball field and, as older brother Bengie recalled, always seemed to "be the first player taken in the youth league draft". Molina concentrated on infield positions until about age 16, when he began to develop the familiar Molina physique: as of 2013, he stood 5'11" and weighed 220 pounds.