Good
morning,
Quote
of the day:
When
asked if cannibalism still existed with native tribes in the New
Guinea a recently civilized native said “You
would
not
be killed for that purpose but if you died of natural causes you
would not be wasted.”
I
read a story about the US Marines in Korea. It is about George
Company, 3rd
Regiment, 1st
Marine Division. This group became known as “Bloody George”.
1st
Marines had arrived at a town in North Korea named Hagaru-ri near the
Chosin reservoir and sent George company (about 300 men) onto a ridge
called “East Hill” about 6 miles away to protect their flank.
Almost instantly George company was under attack by swarms of
Chinese. These guys fought for 5 days and nights and repulsed every
attack by an estimated 3,000 Chinese. They were finally relieved and
the surviving 96 men marched back into Hagaru in formation and
singing the Marine Corps hymn. I saw a survivor of this battle being
interviewed. This older gentleman with tears flowing and lips
quivering said “I was my honor to have fought with those men.”
After George company finally arrived back at Hagaru a news
corespondent asked one of the surviving Marines “After all you have
been through what do you want most of all.” The young Marine
replied “Give me tomorrow.”
I
spent 5 ½ years in the United States Air Force beginning three
months after I graduated from high school. I was tested then trained
as an air traffic controller. This is no walk in the park, y'all.
This is a serious and stressful business as you might suspect. My
first assignment was Moody AFB, Georgia. We had team leaders that
knew what the hell they were doing, they had to because they had to
actively participate in the team effort like everybody else in
addition to decisions making that could effect safety of the pilots.
One day the tower chief called all of us controllers together and
said that we had a new team leader coming aboard and introduced us to
him. He was a staff sergeant. The first day in the tower it was
obvious that this man did not have one scintilla of knowledge or
aptitude for being an air traffic controller. The rest of us looked
at each other quizzically. We finally found out that this man had
spent over 15 years in the motor pool as a mechanic. He wanted to
change careers because he had gone as far in rank as he could in that
assignment and had requested to become an air traffic controller.
Air Force regulations allowed this debacle. Rather than start as a
regular team member and learn how to do the job he was made a team
leader because of his rank. All he did was sit in the back of the
tower cab and “supervise”. One time he did “take the mike”
and tried to do some control but he was so embarrassingly inept that
one of us took it back over. This jackass had no clue what was going
on especially in a night “maximum effort” when nearly all the
available fighters took off in close intervals and returned the same
way. When we determined that the air was going to be full of
aircraft and a change in the traffic patterns was warranted we would
look at him and ask him what he thought and he would just nod. Not
once did he ever initiate a change because he was way over his head.
I went to the tower chief and told him what we all had observed. He
just shrugged his shoulder and said “It is over my head, just make
it work.” I had a problem with this and got busted because of my
attitude. But such is the way with the military. In this case it
was about rank not aptitude and/or experience regardless of the
danger to pilots. Don't get me wrong, a construction of rank is
required in the military but the overall success of the mission
should be considered.
This
Date in History November 17
1558
On this date the Queen of England, Mary I died and the Elizabethan
era of England begins with the coronation of Queen Elizabeth I.
England had been undergoing a lot of turmoil because of religion.
Queen Mary was a Catholic and was trying all in her power to get the
Pope involved in the politics of the English government and saw to it
that laws were passed that were unabashedly pro-Catholic even though
the greater majority of the English people were either Calvinists or
Presbyterian. Elizabeth never married so that her power would have
no chance of being diluted. She had at least two boyfriends,
however. They were the Earl of Leicester and the Earl of Essex.
Elizabeth was a descendent of Henry VIII and was a devoted
Protestant. The people of England were pleased with the rise of
Elizabeth because they thought she would be more tolerant of
different religions and they were right. England moved into a time
of religious tolerance and that eliminated much of the civil turmoil
that had been present with Queen Mary. Elizabeth’s tolerance had a
limit. When her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots was kicked out of
Scotland because of her religion and came to be with her cousin
Elizabeth, she let her stay in safety. The thanks that Elizabeth got
was that Mary, Queen of Scots plotted to kill Elizabeth so she could
assume the crown, she was a descendant of Henry VIII also. You see,
Mary was a Catholic also and other Catholics in Europe wanted England
to be ruled by Catholics. Well, this indiscretion cost Mary, Queen
of Scots her head. She was imprisoned for a while in Fotheringay
Castle and then was taken out on the lawn to meet a big guy, in a
black hood with a big double bladed axe. She went to meet her maker
in two pieces. Elizabeth ruled during some of the most turbulent
times in English history with the attempted invasion by Spain with
Spanish Armada, but the Spanish were ground down to the bottom of the
English Channel by one hell of a storm and the indefatigable British
navy which sailed out of Southampton and Plymouth in ships that were
designed for rough water and chopped those Spaniards into paella.
During her reign the British navy became recognized as the most
powerful in the world. Eventually Elizabeth sent Sir Francis Drake
on a voyage of discovery which resulted in a trip around the globe.
She also sent Sir Walter Raleigh to the new world on a mission of
discovery. She died in 1603 and was succeeded by Mary, Queen of
Scot’s son, James VI of Scotland. James was a Protestant and at
his coronation he was titled as James I, King of Great Britain. This
was the first time in English history that England, Scotland and
Ireland were ruled by one king. Elizabeth’s long and productive
reign puts her as one of the greatest Monarchs in the history of
England if not the world.
1777
On this date the American Congress submitted the Article of
Federation to the states for ratification. It had taken 16 months of
bickering to get to this point. Virginia and Maryland kept bickering
over lands in their western sections that delayed ratification for 4
more years. Finally in 1781 the Articles of Federation were
ratified. The Articles shown how much paranoia had been brought over
from Europe by out ancestors. The Article were very specific about
the independence and sovereignty of each state which essentially made
each state it own little dukedom. Our ancestors were very afraid of
anything that looked like a central Kingdom. Soon the shortcomings
of this arrangement became obvious. We had to have a centralized
government to control the economy, military and a common code of
laws, etc. In 1798 we came up with our present Constitution and its
attached Bill of Rights which is what we exist with today, to many,
me included, this is the most important document in the history of
mankind. It describes our method of government (a democratic
republic) and a strong central government but protecting the rights
of the individual citizen. It was a carefully crafted and well
thought out instrument by a group of brilliant men that had to be at
this place in this point in time not by accident but by design. To
me it is ludicrous to assume that the presence of Thomas Jefferson,
among others, in Virginia in this time period as being a random
event. The United States exists for a reason, what it is we don’t
know......yet.
1863
Previously CSA General James Longstreet had left the Army of
Northern Virginia, R.E. Lee commanding, to help shore up CSA General
Braxton Bragg’s army near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Bragg was
present at the siege of Chattanooga and the CSA victory at
Chickamauga. Then he got into a quarrel with the inept Bragg and
left headed back to Virginia and General Lee. Along the way he
decides to besiege Knoxville, Tennessee to try to kick out the
Yankees that were there. That siege began on this day. Longstreet
called of the siege a week later and headed east and toward the Army
of Northern Virginia and General Robert E. Lee.
Born today:
1771
US businessman Charles A. Allen. He said “You can make more
friends in a month by expressing interest in them than you can in ten
years of trying to get them interested in you.” Good thinking,
Charles, by the way, what do you think of me?
Died today:
1888
US businessman and father of a president Joseph Kennedy. He said
“If you want to make money, go to where the money is.” Many
called him a bootlegger and he did indeed bring illegal whiskey into
America during prohibition. But he made most of his money by buying
huge amounts of Scotch and put it in railroad cars and let it sit in
Scotland during Prohibition and waited for it to be changed and when
it did, he almost had a corner on the Scotch whiskey market.
Thanks
for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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