Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the soldier who died...rather we should thank God that such men lived.”

US General George S. Patton

In yesterday's edition I briefly described the story line of the movie The Kings Speech. I mentioned that Prince Edward rejected being the king of England so he could marry “The woman I love”. He and his bride were then titled the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and spent the rest of their days touring the world and living the high life. Their permanent residence was in Paris but they would go anywhere King George VI or Queen Elizabeth commanded. They were titled Windsor because that is the “house” that is/was the present lineage of the kings and queens of England. The Duke died first and was buried on the grounds of Windsor castle and his bride followed several years later. Windsor castle was originally built by William the Conqueror in about 1080.

About this time in 1945 there was a gathering of ships in the Marianas in the Pacific There were troop transports, cargo ships and war ships of all sizes. The overall commander as Admiral Chester Nimitz. It was essentially a US Marine operation as most operations in the Pacific were. The name of this event was Operation Detachment. The ships left their assembly point headed for tiny Island southeast of Okinawa that nobody ever heard of but had three airstrips and was about half way between Saipan/Tinian (where US bombers were based) and Japan. This tiny island was occupied by the Japanese under the command of a very competent leader named General Tadamishi Kuribayashi. The armada arrived on February 16 and hell on Earth was realized. It was Iwo Jima, y'all. After a month of savage fighting Kuribayashi sent his last dispatch to Tokyo saying “Our weapons have been destroyed. We have not eaten nor drank for five days but our spirit is good. We will mount our final charge tonight. May Japan exist for a thousand years.” A final charge was indeed launched that night and was totally crushed by the Marines. General Kuribayashi's corpse was never identified. Out of about 30,000 Japanese defenders on this island there were 220 survivors. By the way, this is the only battle involving the US Marines where the enemy suffered less casualties than the Marines. Casualties means killed OR wounded. The Japanese didn't play that...it was either fighting...or dead.

This Date in History February 6

1820 On this date the first ship carrying freed slaves out of the country left New York harbor for Freetown in the West African country of Sierra Leone. This voyage was sponsored by the American Colonization Society led by Robert Finley but the United States Congress had kicked in $100,000 for the expenses. These former slaves were those that were brought to the United States illegally after the passing of the American Law in 1808 that forbade slave trade. That’s right folks, slave trade in America was forbidden after 1808. This meant that slaves could no longer be brought into the United States. That did not mean that you could not keep the slaves you had and trade them, buy them or sell them within the boundaries of the United States. So the “illegal slaves” that were brought here after 1808 had the option to go back to Africa. The American plan was based on the English plan whereby the slaves that fought for England during the American Revolutionary War and were unhappy with what was given them in Canada and were allowed to go back to Africa. In 1787 England sent 300 former slaves and 60 white prostitutes to Sierra Leone. Very soon after their arrival they died of disease or in warfare with the Temne tribe. However, in 1792 a second fleet of ships departed but now it had 1,100 former slaves that had fought for England during the Revolutionary War plus thousands that had fled the West Indies and other parts of West Africa and came under the leadership of Thomas Clarkson to the new found country of Liberia and the capitol of Freetown to establish an independent nation. Between 1822 and 1861 15,000 Africans moved to Freetown and the new nation of Liberia was granted independence in 1847 and received diplomatic recognition from the US in 1863. Liberia is the first democratic black nation in history. All of y'all need to read about what recently happened to that country and the major employer Firestone.

Quotable quotes:

“I am sorry, what was the question? I was distracted by that half-masticated cow wallowing around in your mouth”.

Michael Caine in “Miss Congeniality”

“George W. Bush’s economic plan will create 2.5 million jobs. The bad news is that they are all for Iraqi soldiers.”

Craig Kilborn

“The graveyards are full of indispensable men.”

Charles de Gaulle

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

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