Good
morning,
Quote
of the day:
“History
is always written by the winners and disputed by the losers.”
Napoleon
I
don't know what was happening here a while back. It started when
some kind of seminar was held nearby that included a rafting trip
down the Chattooga River. This river is about 40 miles northwest of
Greenville on the Georgia border. After a hell of a lot of rain the
river was raging and a raw amateur from Tampa was allowed to raft on
it. This river has some of the meanest rapids in the world and
requires an expert to navigate it under normal circumstances but
extra water makes it impossible. As you might expect, this amateur
capsized, was pinned to bottom by a hydraulic and drowned. His
corpse was detected by an underwater camera in the “Sock 'em Dog”
rapids but it kept raining and the rescuers had to wait. After the
waters had receded somewhat the rescuers could not find the corpse
where they saw it last...it had moved. They finally found and
retrieved the corpse but it took about a week. Much of the movie
“Deliverance” was filmed on this river.
About
two weeks later a man from Kentucky was kayaking on the Shining Rock
wilderness area in western North Carolina. He did not show up at the
appointed time and a search was begun. The rescuers found the kayak
right away but it took a few days to find the corpse...high water
again.
During
this time period according to my calculations it had rained in this
area for 24 days in a row. It was of varying intensities but it
rained. We had flash flood warning many times. Why would anyone try
to raft/kayak these mountain rivers under those circumstances?
Then
down on Hunting Island (been there, near Beaufort, SC) a family had
gathered for a reunion. After a series of storms and as nature will
have it, a hell of a rip current developed close to shore up and down
the Carolina coast. A few of the family decided to go for a swim.
The father and one of his daughters were swept out to sea and
drowned. There is one other that is still missing. Yet another
person was swept out to sea but knew that she should just swim
parallel to the beach until the rip dissipated and she survived.
And
finally so far this summer in the land of the Gamecocks, a man not
yet identified showed up near a waterfall about 40 miles north of
Greenville near Toxaway Falls, NC. He climbed up one of the cliffs
at the base of the waterfall which was about 12 feet up, then he
jumped into the well known pool at the base of the waterfall. The
water was about 4 feet high making the pool 14 feet deep. The man
came up a couple of times and appeared to be struggling then he
disappeared. The rescue squad searched for 12 hours, including a
helicopter with no results, they will keep trying. The water is not
exactly balmy in those mountain streams. Maybe the man experienced
some kind of heart failure or seizure because the shock of the icy
water. I suppose we will find out...if they find him.
About
this time in 1944 Adolph Hitler realized the the D-Day landing in
June was for real and the Allies were in France to stay. He began
planning his next move in case the ferocious German counter attack
that was under way failed. He was looking at a section of Belgium
that was covered by a dense forest called the Ardennes. We will
explore what happened here a little later on.
This
Date in History July 18
1969 This date saw
two historic events that were important to these United States. The
most important one was the landing of the Apollo 11 spacecraft on the
moon with Buzz Aldrin and Neal Armstrong aboard. The second one was
not as heroic. Senator Ted Kennedy and his friend Joe Gargan were
hosting a cookout on the affluent Chappaquiddick Island near Martha’s
Vineyard. Attending the cookout was a stone fox named Mary Joe
Kopechne. She and young Ted apparently stirred up a mutual fire and
Ted borrowed someone’s Oldsmobile and he and she headed for a
remote beach on the island. Young Ted, not being familiar with this
part of Martha’s Vineyard, missed a turn and ran off a short bridge
into a small tidal basin. The Oldsmobile went under water enough to
cover the car. Ted was able to escape and swam to shore and then ran
on over to his family’s compound where he changed clothes and sat
down trying to figure out what to do. Ten hours later he calls a
rescue team and the Olds is pulled from the basin with the corpse of
Mary Jo aboard. To this day, now old Ted has never been able to
satisfactorily explain his behavior on the fateful night. His
behavior is demonstrated by his lack of character. He was diagnosed
with a malignant brain tumor. God works is mysterious and sometime
vengeful ways. Ted eventually died.
1792
Revolutionary War hero John Paul Jones died in his Paris
apartment. He was in Paris awaiting a commission to become the US
ambassador to Algiers. This man was instrumental in the creation of
a viable navy for the fledgling United States. The US did not have
any warships to speak of not the money to buy any. Jones showed the
honorable way to get the ships, he and a group of his men would sneak
aboard a British man-of-war, kill the captain and most of the crew,
throw them over the side and sail the ship back into American waters
for re-fitting and renaming. The first of these was when Jones
sailed his ship the USS
Ranger out
of Brest, France and made a successful raid on the English port
of Whitehaven and then on over to the Irish Sea that Jones knew well
since he was a native Scot. He spied the British man-of-war
HMS
Drake,
engaged her in combat and boarded her, killed the captain and the
second in command and some of the crew and took command of the Drake
also. His most famous fight was when he was in command of the US
warship the
USS Bonhomie Richard and
engaged the larger and more heavily armed HMS
Serapis.
Jones took a hell of a beating in the early stages and was taking on
water and on fire. The captain of the Serapis signaled for Jones to
surrender. Jones signaled back “I have not yet begun to fight.”
Jones and his crew was able to stem the leaks and put out the fires
and maneuvered the Serapis
into a position that it was forced to surrender. Jones died at the
age of 45 and is buried in a crypt on the US Naval Academy grounds at
Annapolis, Maryland. On occasion his crypt is opened during
ceremonies but is guarded by a squad of US Marines the whole time it
is open.
1863 Earlier the
United States government was in a quandary about black men. They
said they were fighting the Civil War under the presumption that all
men are created equal yet they had not one black combat unit in the
entire army. Either they were equal or they were not and if they
were, they need to be in combat like all the other white men out
there. Lincoln himself was very cool to the idea and suggested that
the black man was “not far enough along” to assume the duties of
mortal combat. But influential men like Frederick Douglass leaned on
Lincoln enough to where he conceded but insisted that the leadership
of such a unit would have to be white. Finally a black unit was
assembled, trained and armed and became the 54th
Massachusetts Regiment commanded by Boston aristocrat Colonel Robert
Gould Shaw. Two of Frederick Douglass’s sons were in this
Regiment. The first combat this unit experienced was when they
landed near Port Royal, South Carolina and were successful in
repelling attacks by the Confederates from Georgia. The port of
Charleston, SC was paramount in importance to the US military. The
problem was that the mouth of Charleston Harbor was bristling with
artillery not to mention the guns of Fort Sumter in the middle of the
harbor. The US military decided to reduce the Confederate artillery
on the south side of the harbor located on Morris Island and known as
Fort Wagner. The 54th
was assigned this task. On this date late in the afternoon the 54th
began their assault. The biggest problem was that the only land
approach to Fort Wagner was over a narrow path that paralleled the
beach with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and an impenetrable marsh
on the other. The attack was repulsed even though the Fort was
breached in two places but the Confederates were able to throw them
back. In all there were 254 of the 54th
killed in this endeavor including Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. They
made a movie named Glory
about this episode in our history. Denzell Washington won an Oscar
for his performance in this movie.
1984
On this date at lunch time a man named James Huberty told his wife
that he is going hunting and then he says “Only this time I am
going hunting humans.” He walked into a crowded McDonalds in San
Ysidro, California, pulled out an automatic rifle and pistol and
ordered everyone to lie on the floor. Everyone complied and Huberty
calmly walked around in the restaurant and indiscriminately shot and
killed 21 people and wounded another 20. The police finally arrived
and surrounded the place but do not shoot because they do not know
how many shooters are involved. Finally, one of the managers manages
to escape through the basement and told the police that Huberty is
the only shooter so they give a police sniper to go ahead to take
this son-of-a-bitch out. The sniper finally got an open shot and put
a round in Huberty’s heart killing him instantly. There are
crazies out there, y'all. Huberty’s wife told the police that
Huberty had called the County Mental Health Facility seeking and
appointment a week before but got no call back.
Born today:
1811 US writer
William Makepeace Thackeray. He said “Next to the very young, I
suppose the very old are the most selfish.”
1906 US Senator Sam
Hayakawa. He said “I am going to speak my mind because I have
nothing to lose.” Let me understand you, Sam. Does this mean that
if you have something to lose you will use deception? Senator
indeed.
1908 US playwright
Clifford Odets. He said “Rich men play polo, poor men have sex.”
We all need recreation, Cliff. Mahatma Gandhi said “The bed of
poverty is fertile” and I guess that is why you will see a shack
barely standing with a whole squadron of kids running around.
1929 US Blues
shouter “Screaming Jay” Hawkins. He said “I came into this
world black, naked and ugly. No matter what I accumulate here, it is
a short journey. I will go out or this world black, naked and ugly. I
am going to enjoy myself.” That is a damn good attitude, y'all.
1939
US writer Hunter “Gonzo” Thompson. When asked to describe
Richard Nixon he said “He has the integrity of a hyena and the
style of a poison toad.” Gonzo blew his brains out a few years
ago.
Thanks for
listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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