Al's
Most Recent
Quote
of the day:
“Sometimes
when you look into his eyes you get the feeling that someone else is
driving.”
David
Letterman when speaking of Robin Williams
Those
militiamen that are camped out on “government” land out in Oregon
have staked a claim and are willing to sit out a standoff. The US
Government want them off that land. The chief of the Paiute nation
says it is their land. Who is right?
Many
years ago I was an air traffic controller in Pensacola, Fla. In
those days the air over the Gulf of Mexico was alive with radar
targets that no one knew anything about. They were without a doubt
drug smugglers coming and going to Mexico and Central and South
America. One night I was working 10p to 6a alone in the radar room.
The assistant chief had left me a note saying that later on that
night some people would be staying part of the night with me. They
were ATF agents that wanted to use our radar to see what the hell is
going on over the Gulf. The Pensacola area has many US Navy
abandoned airfields that were used in the past to train Navy pilots.
Sure enough later on a fair sized target approached from over the
Gulf and headed for an abandoned field near Summerdale, Al. The ATF
had been aware that this field was being used by smugglers and had
agents near by. The agents with me got on the phone and alerted that
unit and they were waiting when the plane (full of pot and coke)
landed and arrests were made. It was exciting. By the way, when it
comes to radar air traffic control jargon it is NOT a “blip”...it
IS a “target”.
This
Date in History January 8
1877 On this date
the mighty Cheyenne warrior Crazy Horse fought his last battle. A
year earlier Crazy Horse and his Sioux counterpart Sitting Bull had
gathered an army of about 2,000 warriors and their families in
Montana in the Coulee of the Greasy Grass in as it was called by the
Indians but known to us honkies as Little Big Horn. The US 7th
Cavalry led by Lt. Col. George A. Armstrong had struck at the
encampment with just 227 men all of whom were massacred and
mutilated. The American public demanded revenge for this and the US
army sent out General Nelson Miles to find and punish the Indians.
Sitting Bull escaped with his tribe into Canada where they stayed for
four years, but Miles was able to track down Crazy Horse and his
tribe. On this day, Miles and his cavalry encountered Crazy Horse.
The Cheyenne opened with withering rifle fire and the US Cavalry
responded with wagon mounted cannon fire that drove the Indians out
of their warm teepees out into a blizzard. Under cover of the
blizzard, the women and children escaped the fusillade followed soon
by the warriors. Even though Crazy Horse escaped defeat and capture
then, he realized how outgunned he and his braves were and in May
took his tribe to Fort Robinson in the Nebraska territory and
surrendered. About 5 months later Crazy Horse got into an argument
with a guard and was bayoneted and killed, thus died one of the
bravest hearts to ever beat. There is a gigantic statue of Crazy
Horse being erected in Black Hills of the Dakotas.
1815 A few days
earlier French pirate Jean Lafitte’s crewmen spotted a British Army
unit closing in on New Orleans from the east and got word to the US
commander in that area, General Andrew Jackson. Jackson gathered as
many armed men that he could, and that included Jean Lafitte’s
crewmen. Jackson chose to dig in at the Rodriguez Canal and await
the British attack. The British did not disappoint and began an
attack led by British Colonel Packenham. Keep in mind that Jackson’s
troops included many backwoodsmen that happened to be very skilled
sharpshooter. When the British got within range the American troops
accompanied by French pirates open up a withering hailstorm of rifle
and artillery fire. The Battle of New Orleans was over in a matter
of minutes with the British suffering 2,000 killed, including
Packenham, and many wounded. Jackson’s troops suffered 8 killed
and 6 wounded. This battle was fought unnecessarily because a truce
had been signed 10 days before but Jackson and the British had not
received the word in that area. As a reward for fighting with
Jackson, Jean Lafitte and his three (some say five) pirate ships
would be allowed to make their home base in one of the bayous in
southwest Louisiana, probably Bayou Lafourche, under the stipulation
that he would never again attack an American vessel. For some
reason, one of Lafitte’s crews spotted a fat ship out in the Gulf
of Mexico and decided to capture it. They sailed out of their bayou
and when they get close enough they see it is an American vessel but
chose to capture it anyway. When word got back to Lafitte he hanged
the offending crewmen and sailed his ships out of Bayou Lafourche and
was never seen or heard from again. The part of this tale about
Lafitte fighting with Jackson is documented. The rest of the story
is part speculation and part legend but it is an interesting tale
none the less.
1821 Future CSA
General James Longstreet is born on a plantation near Edgefield,
South Carolina. He was raised in Georgia and attended West Point
where he graduated in 1842 54th
in a class of 62. One of his best friends was Ulysses Grant and he
was Grant’s best man at his 1848 wedding to Julia Dent. Longstreet
fought in the Mexican War and was wounded at the Battle of
Chapultepec. At the outbreak of the Civil War he resigned his
commission in the United States Army and signed on with the
Confederacy and given the rank of Brigadier General. Longstreet
fought at the Battle of 1st
Manassas and within a year he was a commander of one of Lee’s three
corps. After the death of “Stonewall” Jackson at
Chancellorsville Longstreet was regarded as the most effective of
Lee’s corps commanders. Longstreet stayed with Lee and the Army of
Northern Virginia for all of the war with an exception of a short
stay while trying to aid the inept CSA General Braxton Bragg near
Chattanooga. He was with Lee at the surrender at Appomattox Court
House.
After the war he was
selected as the Ambassador to Turkey which he served with great
aplomb. Then he committed what his wartime buddies considered an
unpardonable sin and that was he joined the Republican Party. His
greatest detractor during this time was former CSA General Jubal
Early who called him a traitor especially when Longstreet attributed
the loss of the Battle of Gettysburg as being the fault of General
Lee. It was reported that at the 40th
anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, Longstreet was not invited
to attend the ceremony by his Confederate brethren because of him
belonging to the Republican Party. During the opening ceremonies,
General Longstreet came out of nowhere in his still fitting
Confederate uniform, ramrod straight and walked to the front of the
podium amid torrents of rebel yells and oceans of tears. He died the
next year and is buried In Gainesville, Georgia. By the way, General
Jubal Early died unreconstructed, meaning he was still loyal to the
Confederacy.
Born
today:
1941 British
physicist Stephen Hawking. He said “I have noticed that those who
claim our lives are “predestined” always look left and right
before crossing a road.” This may be the smartest man on the
planet.
Las gracias por escuchar, puedo
esperar apenas hasta mañana
Thanks for listening I can
hardly wait until tomorrow
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