Daily history

Good morning,




Quote of the day:

“Everyone is entitled to my opinion.”

Madonna



Here is a few instances of how people’s lives change in an instant never to be the same again.



A Marine sergeant on Iwo Jima was assigned the duty as guard of the Company CP (command post) during the first night of that infamous battle. Very shortly after taking his post a Japanese soldier attacked with his bayoneted rifle. The Marine was able to parry the attack and threw the Japanese soldier to the ground. The soldier pulled out a hand grenade and tried to throw it at the Marine. The Marine was able to wrestle the grenade from the Japanese but the pin had already been pulled. The Marine grabbed the soldier and initiated a “bear hug” holding the sputtering grenade against the soldier’s back. The grenade exploded taking the Marines hand and most of his arm with it. The Japanese was literally cut into. The Marine later said that just before the grenade exploded, he and the soldier were so close that they were touching noses and looking at each other’s eyes only inches apart. He said that the look on the soldier’s face stayed with him forever as did the smell of the soldier before and after the explosion along with the texture of his uniform.



In Iraq an American soldier was standing beside his Humvee when he was shot in the back at close range. Fortunately he had on a bullet proof vest and was only stunned but was knocked to the ground. He looked under the Humvee and saw someone coming wearing Arab clothing and he could see the tip of a rifle hanging down. He shot one of the legs of the person approaching who fell to the ground instantly. The attacker with a surprised look stared at the American face to face under the Humvee and hesitated just for a second which cost him his life. The American shot hitting him in the forehead killing him instantly. The American soldier said that he has no idea why the attacker hesitated except maybe he had never seen his victims at such close range (about 10 feet)…or it could be that he finally realized that he was about to kill another human being, but the look on the attackers face will stay with him forever.



In the battle for Fallujah, Iraq a US Marine unit led by a Captain Howell burst into a house known to be occupied by al-Qaeda insurgents. There was no lighting in the building. Captain Howell entered a pitch black room and was struck on the left shoulder by an assassin using a two by four which broke his collar bone. Captain Howell grabbed the assassin with his good arm and finally was able to get his arm around the neck. He could not reach his knife because of the incapacitated left arm so he bit a chunk out of the man’s jugular vein and held on until he bled out. He said the man’s mouth was just a couple of inches from his face and as he struggled to live he started yelling curses at the Captain Howell but at the last he was praying to Allah. Captain Howell also said that the smell, feel of his struggles for life and even the taste of the man’s sweat will stay with him forever.



This date in history February 1



1781    Earlier British General William Cornwallis and his cavalry commander the infamous Colonel Banastre Tarelton were beginning to realize that the war in the Carolinas and Georgia was lost and began moving north to join with the other British troops in New England. Cornwallis had left his encampment in Camden, South Carolina earlier. But he turned around when he found out about the slaughter of the British/Loyalists at the Battle of Kings Mountain, NC. Finally Cornwallis determined that it was safe enough to move north and the evacuation began. Awaiting him on the north side of the Catawba River at Cowan’s Ford in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina (a short distance south of Charlotte) was 600-800 North Carolina militia commanded by Brigadier General William Lee Davidson. Davidson’s father was an Ulster-Scot Presbyterian minister that had immigrated to the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area. He then moved to what is now Iradell County, North Carolina. Davidson had his troops away from the river a considerable distance in case Tarleton should cross at another location and attack the militia from the rear and pin them against the river. Finally, Cornwallis and his army arrive, supply wagons and all. The noise of the wagons awakens the sleeping guards and they open fire. The noise brings General Davidson running and almost instantly he is killed by a musket ball to the heart. The militia puts up a spirited fight but Cornwallis has his army cross in two columns, infantry/cavalry in one column and the wagons in the other. The crossing is successful and Cornwallis continues north. In 1835 General Davidson’s son, William Lee Davidson II, donates land to the Concord Presbytery in his father’s name. On this land was built the present day Davidson College.



1861    On this date Texas votes to secede from the union against the expressed wished of three term governor Sam Houston. Texas was the last of the first round of states to secede. The other few states waited until hostilities had began in earnest before seceding. Texas seceded pretty much for the same reason as the rest with state’s right as the major issue and slavery being an incidental one. As the pot of secession began to boil, the Texas Legislature petitioned Sam Houston to convene the Legislature for a secession vote. Bowing to the pressure, Houston convened the Legislature and a vote for secession was taken and approved. After the vote Houston said “You are asking for an ignominious defeat.” He was right.



1943    In July of 1942 the Japanese landed on one of the islands in the Solomon island chain named Guadalcanal. They went there to build an airfield to provide air support for their ships invading the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies. There were five islands in this particular group. The other four were Florida, Tulagi, Gavutu and Tananbogo. The Americans responded to the Japanese by invading all five of the islands but the heavier force went to Guadalcanal because of the airfield. Fortunately, it was bad weather and the Japanese patrol planes could not get off the ground and the 11,000 Marines assigned to Guadalcanal landed undetected and therefore there was no battle at water’s edge. There was a fierce but short battle at water’s edge for the other four smaller islands. After the outnumbered Japanese on Guadalcanal discovered the Marines had landed they retreated to the west end of the Island but very soon the Japanese landed additional troops and evened the odds. The Marines took the airfield within two days of landing but kicking the rest of the reinforced Japanese off the island became one of the major battles in WWII and is a milestone in the history of the United States Marines and the United States Navy. Throughout the whole time the Marines were on Guadalcanal the US Navy battled the formidable Japanese Navy for control of the seas around the island. There were so many ships of both sides sunk north and east of the island that it became known as “Iron Bottom Sound”. The US Marines had no experience in jungle warfare unlike the Japanese that had been jungle fighters for years. There were several major battles that almost every time resulted in hand-to-hand fighting. The American commanders had never seen anything like it. One of them wrote “I have never seen nor heard of anything like this. These people simply refuse to surrender”. The American Marines became accustom to mass killing on a regular basis. Finally on this date six months after landing the Marines sent out a patrol and did not make contact with the Japanese. They then did a detailed search and found no Japanese anywhere on the island. They had secretly evacuated at the direction of the Emperor. The battle would have lasted much longer but the US Navy was able to put 48 to 90 fighter/bombers on the airfield which provided air support for the ground troops. The main fighting force for the Marines was the 1st and 7th Regiment. After the island was secure a reporter came ashore and approached a ragged Marine and asked where the headquarters of the 1st Marines was. The Marine responded “Mister, there ain’t no more 1st Marines.” Also it was here that the greatest Marine of them all, “Chesty” Puller fighting with the 7th Marines, won one of his five Navy crosses. The final result was the Japanese had lost 25,000 men to 1,600 Marines. But these figures can be misleading. Almost every person that stepped foot on Guadalcanal contracted malaria. They both lost 24 ships. War is hell, indeed.



1974    On this date University of Washington freshman Linda Healy is found dead in her dorm. She had been murdered and it was the first but by no means the last for a monster named Theodore “Ted” Bundy. Bundy killed a few more girls in Washington and then the killings stopped. A few weeks later some dead women began showing up in Salt Lake City. Ted had enrolled in Brigham Young University. Ted was captured and escaped twice before disappearing for an extended period. Then college girls began showing up dead on the campus of Florida Sate University in Tallahassee. Ted eventually tortured and killed an 11 year old girl from Jacksonville, Florida. He was pretty smart but on a particular occasion he was a dumb-ass. He stole a VW beetle and was caught driving it in Pensacola, Florida. After a short foot chase, Ted was in handcuffs. He was tried and convicted of the murder of the 11 year old and sentenced to death. After all is said and done, it was determined that Ted had killed at least 28 women but that was probably a very low estimate. Anyway, on January 24, 1989, to an audience of thousands of cheering people surrounding the fence at the state prison near Raiford, Florida, Ted Bundy was electrocuted and went meet his maker medium rare. I wonder if Ted pled for his life. I certainly hope so. By the way, some of those people surrounding the fence cheering had barbecue grills going “in remembrance of Ted”. That’s funny.



Quotable quotes:



“I was trying to daydream but my mind kept wandering”

                                           Steven Wright



“I know some people are against drunk driving. But sometimes you have no choice; those kids have to get to school.”

                                              Dave Attell



“So what if I am not a good driver. If you don’t like the way I drive, stay off the sidewalk.”

                                     Joan Rivers





Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow