Good morning,







Quote of the day:


“Sometimes I lay awake at night and I ask 'Where have gone wrong.?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.'”


Charlie Brown, Peanuts






Answer to the trivia question as to what now deceased All-Pro NFL defensive lineman never played on a college team...It was 6'-6”-280 pound Eugene “Big Daddy” Lipscomb...He played for the Los Angeles Rams, Baltimore Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers. He was recruited from the Camp Pendleton and Quantico Marines football teams. By the way, he died of a drug overdose at the age of 31. Nobody ever said he was smart.






Trivia question:


What is the largest naturally occuring land animal in North America? Hint: African elephants, Indian elephants and rhinos are NOT naturally occuring in North America.






Back in September of 2011 over in Spartanburg, SC., a 33 year old man sexually molested a child under the age of 11. He then left the country and went to South Korea. The Spartanburg PD could not find him and put his information out on the nationwide fugitive network. This past week this bastard arrived in Los Angeles attempting to re-enter the US. When his name was scanned by Customs it popped up as him being a fugitive from Spartanburg, SC. They arrested him and notified the SCSO who was very grateful. He will be extradited back to stand trial. I almost feel sorry for him if he is convicted of child abuse and goes to a South Carolina prison because I know what will happen to him. But on second thought...that will not be enough....they should get medieval on his as-.






It looks like Bank of America has begun to show that they have a heart after all. They have begun a pilot program whereby certain homeowners whose homes that are in foreclosure will be offered a deal where the bank retains the title and deed to the property. The homeowners will be allowed to stay in the house on a lease arrangement. The past due house payments will be forgiven and the lease payment will be equal to or less than current market. The leaseholder will not be responsible for taxes and insurance either. It is known as the familiar lease/purchase arrangement that first time home buyers frequently employ. The item did not mention if the lease payment went toward the price of buying the house or not but I suspect that it would.






Over in Charlotte, NC a 20 year veteran of the Charlotte PD named Bobby Wiliiams met Wendy Daniels who was working in the communications section. They realized that they had been dating while in high school 20 year ago and decided to start again. After a few months Bobby felt that it was not working and broke off the relationship. Wendy went crazy as hell. She came over to his house and kicked open the front door, broke some furniture, etc. After that she filed over 100 abuse charges against Bobby all of which were thrown out of court. Bobby said that Wendy made his life hell for quite a while. The prosecutor decided to put Wendy under “deferred prosecution” for two years. What this essentially amounts to is parole. You have to do exactly what the court orders and behave for two year and then your record is erased. Wendy was very happy with this but Bobby thought it was bullsh-t...So do I. What if that had been Bobby doing all that stuff? Deferred prosecution, my ass.






Rather than the history lesson, here is a biography on an interesting person.










Biography of James “Jumpin’ Jim” Gavin










This is the biography of a very driven and successful individual. He went from an orphan to a small coal mining town to a General in the US Army to the United States Ambassador to France with many adventures in between.






James Maurice Gavin was born James Nally Ryan in Brooklyn, New York in 1907. His precise ancestry is unknown. It is known that his mother, Katherine Ryan, was probably an Irish immigrant but the father is ambiguous. When James was about two years old his mother sent him to an orphanage where he stayed until he was the age of 8 and he was adopted by Martin and Mary Gavin who lived in the coal mining town of Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania. As you might suspect, Martin Gavin was a coal miner. The Gavins treated James as well as could be expected but had trouble making ends meet which required James to drop out of school at the age of 12 and go to work to help support the family. James knew that his adoptive parents wanted him to become a coal miner and that was the last thing James wanted. So at the age of 17 James ran away from home and took a train to New York City. As soon as he could he sent a telegram to the Gavins telling them that he was OK but that he was ready to go it alone. He knew this would stop the Gavins from reporting him missing and the police would not come looking for him. He knocked around in New York for just a short time before going to a US Army recruiting office and tried to enlist. He had to prove he was at least 18 years old and he knew his parents would never approve so he told the recruiter that he was an orphan. The recruiter took James and two other “orphans” to an attorney who technically became the guardian of all of them and approved their enlistment. James Maurice Gavin became a Private in the US Army in 1924.


James’ first assignment was at Panama as a crew member in a 155 howitzer unit. The library in that facility was rich in military history books. James read ravenously the careers of many great military leaders including Hannibal and “Stonewall” Jackson. James was always very aware of his lack of education and read all the literature that he could get his hands on. He also would take long walks throughout the countryside trying to assuage his ever present curiosity. One of the men he looked up to was his First Sergeant who was an American Indian known as “Chief” Williams. Sergeant Williams saw the potential in James and made him his aide and James was promoted to corporal six months later. In spite of the heat, humidity and malaria carrying mosquitoes, James remembered his tour in Panama with fondness.






James let it be known that he was interested in a military career and at the Chief’s suggestion; he applied for a military training school where the graduates would be eligible to apply for an appointment to West Point. James was accepted to this school but needed a tutor for algebra, geometry, English and history. This tutor turned out to be Lt. Percy Black, a man that encouraged him to succeed and James never forgot him. James did indeed graduate from the school and was selected to go to West Point. Since James had no basic education he got up at 4:30a and studied in the bathroom where there was enough light to read. After a tough 4 years, in 1929 James graduated as a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Army. Soon after graduation he married Irma Baulsir of Washington, D.C.


His next assignment was in Douglas, Arizona with the 25th Infantry Regiment, one of the black only units in the Army. They were also known as the “Buffalo Soldiers”. His next assignment was the Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia with Colonel George C. Marshall at the helm. Marshall eventually became the US Army Chief of Staff. Marshall brought Colonel Joseph “Vinegar Joe” Stillwell with him as the instructor in tactics. Marshall and Stillwell believed in the premise of field commanders just giving a rough outline of the goal and let their combat commanders use whatever tactics works for them. This was exactly the Army James was looking for. He had been taught that he should issue detailed instruction in the field but here was a school that taught progressive use of improvisation and innovation in combat. James had a fertile mind and this was his calling. By the way, it was the German way of not allowing improvisation by their combat commanders that cost them the defeat on D-Day. If our soldiers ran across something that was unexpected and could not contact their superiors, they improvised. Not so with the Germans. Anyway, Stillwell was a tough and demanding instructor and insisted that all combat commanders not issue an order that they were unable to carry out themselves. James found his time at Fort Benning a very enjoyable one but his marriage to Irma was failing. In December of 1934 he and Irma drove to Washington to spend Christmas with her parents. When it came time to go back to Georgia, Irma chose to stay in Washington with her parents. James’ next posting was at Fort Sill, Oklahoma where there was an excellent library and as you might suspect, James was there most of his spare time while the others were partying. He then went to the Philippines in 1936 where he became concerned about the preparedness of the troops and equipment to be able to counter the Japanese expansion that was obvious. After the Philippines James came back to Washington and his family and served at the Vancouver Barracks. In 1933 a daughter was born to him and Irma and while in the Philippines he was promoted to Captain.






He next was sent to West Point as a tactics instructor. While the Germans were steamrolling Europe, the best equipment and armaments the US Army had were just copies of the Germans. It was during this period that the idea of airborne assault was borne. He next went to airborne school at Fort Benning, Georgia. After graduating he was asked to write a book about tactics used by airborne assault troops. After this book was finished, he was given promoted to Major and given command of an experimental unit. He was commander of company C of the 503rd Parachute Infantry Battalion. He next wrote a book about how airborne troops could be used to the best effect. It was finally decided that there would be an airborne division and the choice was the 82nd Infantry division at Fort Claiborne, Louisiana and the task of shaping up this unit was given to James. He was promoted to Colonel at the age of 35. James was a hard taskmaster and honed his troops into a razor sharp fighting unit known forever after as the 82nd Airborne. James insisted on having as many jumps as his troops and was always the first out the door. His creed for his field commanders was “First out the door and last in the chow line”. His troops loved him. Just before the first airborne unit graduated James decided to test them. He took them on an exercise that began at 7:00pm and they marched all night to a small town 23 miles away, fought a simulated battle all day and surrounded a simulated airfield and fought off a counter-attack, broke up the exercise at 8:00pm and headed back to the Fort via another route through thick pine forests. They went into bivouac at about 11:00pm, were awakened one hour later and continued on to the Fort arriving about daylight. In the span of 36 hours they had marched about 50 miles, fought for 12 hours, and subsisted on reserve rations. James was in the lead for this entire operation. This type operation is the signature of American Airborne units to this day.






The first combat assignment for the 82nd Airborne was the invasion of Sicily and James Gavin was the first out the door in command of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The winds at the drop zone was stiff and from an unexpected direction and scattered his troops but James was able to gather about 25 men and headed off toward the sound of battle. James also jumped on D-Day and in Belgium during Operation Market-Garden.


After the war he was instrumental in the integration of the all black 555th Parachute Infantry Regiment into the 82nd Airborne. The commander of the 555th said that James was the most color-blind commander he had ever met. He next went into the design of an “airborne cavalry” utilizing lightweight vehicles and helicopters in assault tactics. This vision was realized later in Viet Nam and honed to a razors edge in various covert and overt battles and raids by the US Airborne. James retired in 1958 as a Lieutenant General (3 stars) at the age of 51. He was soon hired by the research and development firm of Arthur D. Little, Inc. As a Vice-President and in 1960 he became President of ADL.


In 1961 President John Kennedy asked James to take a leave of absence and become the Ambassador to France. Kennedy was concerned about the deteriorating relations with France. He knew that during WWII James had met and coordinated operations with French General Charles DeGaulle, now President of France. Hiring of James as the ambassador solved the problem and relations returned to normal.


In 1962 James returned to ADL. In 1971 President Jimmie Carter considered James for the director of the CIA but chose Stansfield Turner instead. During all of this James and Irma were divorced and in 1948 he married Jean Duncan of Knoxville, Tennessee. They remained married for 42 years until his death in 1990 at the age of 83. James has written many books about combat tactics and the history of several important military encounters.






Every year on June 6 (D-Day) the James Gavin family, a group from West point, representatives of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment from Fort Bragg, NC and others gather to honor Lt. General James “Jumpin’ Jim” Gavin. Was he here at this place at in this time period by accident? I think not.






 Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.