Wednesday

              Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I smoke a lot of grass because it stops me from killing people.”

                                      Willie Nelson

A while back when I was working for a large engineering firm there was a female employee that got hooked on drugs. She was good at her job when she wasn't stoned not only that she was a stone fox top to bottom. One of the men on the staff took her under his wing and shepherded her through months long rehab. The day she got out of rehab her previous drug supplier contacted her, came and got her and took her to his house over in Greer, SC and loaded her up. The man that had helped her through all of this found out where she was and who she was with. He retrieved a 12 gauge shotgun, a 9mm Glock and went to the house and was beating on the door. The woman told the dealer that he had better get the hell out of Dodge because she knew what was coming. Sure enough the man shot the locks off the door and came in just as the dealer was bailing out of a window and running the hell away. The man escorted the woman out of the house and soon thereafter a fire broke out that leveled the house. The cops came to this known drug dealers house and the man told him his story. The cops suggested to the man that the fire was probably accidental and sent him on his way. God works in mysterious ways.

A while back there was a free concert by Willie Nelson. He opened with his signature song “Whiskey River.” Willie is probably the most traveled musician that ever existed. What has Willie NOT seen in his lifetime? There is rumor that after four days of I.W. Harper whiskey and grass with very little sleep, Willie was supposed to have a song for a movie ready by the end of the day when he finally sobered up. His bus driver said “Come on Willie, we have to get on the road.” Willie sat down and wrote “On the road again, we have to get back on the road again….” The song was ready in10 minutes. By the way, Willie wrote “Crazy” made famous by Patsy Cline and “Hello Walls” made famous by Faron Young among many, many others. My favorite is “Blue Eyes crying in the Rain”. What a treasure he is to us all.

                     This Date in History October 19

1781 On this immortal day, after eight years of blood, sweat, toil and tears the British Army of 8,000 soldiers and sailors commanded by General Charles Cornwallis surrendered to the Patriot army commanded by General George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia essentially ending the Revolutionary War in the United States. There were a few sea battles and skirmishes elsewhere afterward but the land war in America was over. Earlier in mid-September Cornwallis had retreated with his ragged army from the Carolinas after being bled white by several engagements with US General Nathaneal Greene. Greene did not win any of the engagements but made the British pay a tall price for each victory. Cornwallis decided to head back toward New York and the umbrella of British General Sir Henry Clinton and his troops. Cornwallis decided that it would be prudent to travel north up the east coast so as to have the British Navy close by for supply and reinforcements. The only problem was that the French fleet had arrived at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay first and established a blockade the British navy could not breach which essentially isolated Cornwallis. Cornwallis and his troops dug in on Gloucester Hill near Yorktown. Washington sent the Marquis de Lafayette and 5,000 troops to cut off a retreat to the south and Washington and his troops sealed off a retreat to the north. With the French controlled Chesapeake Bay at his back, Cornwallis had no option but to surrender or risk total annihilation. On the afternoon of this day, Cornwallis feigned sickness and under a white flag sent his second in command, Colonel John O’Hara out with his sword. As the British troops stacked their arms their band played “The World Turned Upside Down.” In 1783 the United States and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Paris which recognized the United States as a free and independent nation.

A brief biography:

This is a short biography of a famous name in the Marine Corp. Daniel “Dan” Joseph Daly was born in Green Cove, New York in 1873 and joined the Marines in November of 1899. Daly wanted to get into the Spanish-American War but the war ended when he was in basic training. He was a small man being about 5’-6” and weighed about 130 pounds but during his career in the Marines Major General John A. Lejeune said called him “the most outstanding Marine of all time.” His commanding officer Major General Smedley D. Butler said of Daly “He was the fightingest Marine I ever knew, it was an object lesson to have served with him.”

After missing the Spanish-American War he was sent as part of Marine expeditionary force to China during the Boxer Rebellion. He was assigned the task of protecting the wall at the American legation. Left alone with only a bayoneted rifle, he was shot at by snipers and the wall was finally stormed by dozens of attackers. Daly held his ground and fought off the assault single handed. After the attackers retreated, there were 36 corpses either on the ground or lying across the wall. For his action here he received the Medal of Honor. He achieved the rank of Gunnery Sergeant making him essentially a platoon leader. His next action was in Haiti during a rebellion. Daly’s platoon was surrounded by a group of raiders and the Marines knew they were in deep shit if they did not get more firepower. That night Daly sneaked through the raider lines, located a machine gun that the Marines had abandoned the day before and brought the gun and ammo back to his platoon undetected. The next morning the raiders attacked but were met not with only the rifle fire of a few Marines but the withering fire of a machine gun. The raiders retreated post haste and Daly received his second Medal of Honor. And finally, at the age of 45, he and his platoon were part of the legendary Marine action at Belleau Wood in WWI. His platoon was pinned down by an avalanche of German artillery and getting chopped to pieces. Daly went from man to man, machine gun position to machine gun position cheering his men. Finally, Daly ordered a bayonet charge and rose up and yelled the immortal words “Come on you sons-of-bitches, do you want to live forever” and off they went. Daly was wounded three times during this campaign. He was offered a commission more than once but refused saying “I had rather be an outstanding sergeant rather than an ordinary officer.” As you might suspect, he received a hell of a lot of publicity which he scorned and called the entire hubbub “a lot of foolishness”. Daly never married and did not drink. His bride was the Marine Corp. His only known sin was that he smoked a pipe stuffed with plug tobacco. There are many other acts of bravery and valor attributed to Daly beside these few examples above, Daly was the definition of an “Iron Man”. Strangely, his commanding officer Major General Smedley Butler also received two Medals of Honor for separate actions. After retirement Daly worked as a guard in a Wall Street bank. Daniel Joseph Daly died on February 6, 1937 in Glendale, Long Island, New York. There is a US Navy destroyer named for him. His remarkable record as a fighting man is unequaled in the annuls of Marine Corp history. I thought it would be nice to remember our brave military guys in a favorable light during these difficult and trying times.

Births:

1895 US writer Lewis Mumford is born. “Men of courage do not need weapons, but they may need bail.” Nearly all of the US Marine Commandants say the same thing.

           Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow