Musings
and History
Quote
of the day:
“Traffic
signals in New York City are just rough guidelines.”
David
Letterman
I
met a friend at lunch Tuesday. He is a retired Marine that was
awarded the Navy Cross in Nam. He told me about a major combat that
he experienced. It was called Operation Starlite in August, 1965. It
was the first time the US Marines ever encountered an organized Viet
Cong Regiment. He was with “H” Company, 2nd
Battalion, 4th
Marines. It lasted six days with 5,500 Marines engaged. 700 Cong
were killed to 45 killed and 400 injured for Marines.
The
remainder of this Viet Cong regiment went to reinforce the NVA
regiment that fought against the AIRCAV unit led by Col. Hal Moore in
the Ia Trang valley two months later. The movie "We Were
Soldiers" starring Mel Gibson was about this battle in general
and Col. Moore in particular. There was an embedded civilian news
reporter with Col. Moore's unit. His name is Joe Galloway and it was
he that wrote the book “We Were Soldiers' from which the movie was
made. By the way, in the movie Hal Moore's first sergeant named
Basil Plumley was played by Sam Elliot.
The
fighting got so desperate that Joe Galloway threw down his camera and
writing implements, grabbed an M-16, dug in and fought his ass off
with the rest of the Marines. He was awarded a Bronze star with a
“V” for his contribution. Lt. General Hal Moore (Ret.) died
Saturday February 10, 2017 in Auburn Al. at the age of 94.
By
the way, there was such a man named Basil Plumley that also is legend
in the paratrooper/combat soldier community and was indeed with
General Moore in Nam. He died in Columbus, Ga. in 2012 at the age of
92. I will do an essay on him in the near future.
This
Date in History February 15
1835
Alexander Stewart Webb was born in New York City. His Grandfather
fought at Bunker Hill for the Patriots and his father was US minister
to Brazil during the Civil War. Alexander attended West Point and
graduated in 1855 13th
in a class of 43. He taught mathematics at West Point and Florida
before the outbreak of the Civil War. After the outbreak of the war
he was sent to Fort Pickens, Florida. He did not stay long before he
was called back to Washington and given command of an artillery
battalion protecting the capitol. Webb’s first taste of combat
came at the Second Battle of Manassas where he and his troops tasted
defeat for the first time. The next major engagement he was in was
the last day of the Battle of the Seven Days, the infamous encounter
at Malvern Hill. In this battle Webb and his troops were victorious
against the Confederates. They won this particular skirmish at
Malvern Hill but the victory of the Battle of Seven Days went to
Robert E. Lee but it was accredited to Webb that his artillery skills
prevented the total annihilation of the US army by Confederate
artillery. In spite of his obvious military skills he was passed
over for promotion several times because of his association with
General George B. McClellan who was fired by President Lincoln and
that left Webb in limbo as a Colonel. Even some of his students at
West Point became a General before him. He was finally promoted to
Brigadier General and had command of a brigade in the center of the
Union lines at Gettysburg during Pickett’s Charge. At the zenith
of the charge the 5th
and 7th
North Carolina crashed through the Union lines and were close to
opening a breach that would have allowed the rest of the 13,000
screaming Confederates to pass through to the rear of the Union lines
where General J.E.B. Stuart and his cavalry awaited. Had these two
forces been allowed to join up the US army would have been destroyed
and perhaps a different history of these United States would have
been written. But when the battle at the front line reached a
critical point, General Webb personally led his brigade in a
ferocious counter-attack and blunted the Confederate advance and
drove them back across the line of attack and back across the field
separating the two armies. For this action, Alexander Stewart Webb
was awarded the Medal of Honor. He wasn’t done yet. He was at the
savage battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse and received a terrible head
wound. I took him eight months to recover. When he came back to
duty he was made an aide to US General George Meade and eventually
went back to West Point as an instructor. He was made president of
City College of New York and he died in Riverdale New York in 1911.
There is a statue of General Webb at the spot where his brigade was
gathered during Pickett’s charge (been there) at Gettysburg.
1942
One of the worst defeats in the history of British military
culminated on this date. The British army was driven off the
southern end of the Malay Peninsula by the Japanese General Yamashita
and his 25th
Army. The retreating British had a chance to delay the Japanese
advance by dynamiting a causeway across a large inlet behind them on
their way to Singapore, but the destruction was not complete and the
Japanese were able to re-build in a matter of days and surrounded and
began a siege around that great city. The British commander General
Percival held out as long as he could but he ran out of water, food
and ammunition and so he surrendered the city. There were over
130,000 allies captured in this disaster of which only a very small
percentage ever saw their homes again.
Born
today:
1368
Germanic Emperor Sigismund. He said “I am a Roman Emperor and
am above grammar.” Siggy, shut the hell up.
1564
Astrophysicist Galileo. He said “I do not feel obliged to
believe that the same God who had endowed us with sense, reason and
intellect has intended us to forego its use.” This came as a
result of a squabble with the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church
wanted Galileo to teach want the Pope said instead of what he had
discovered. The church prevailed under the threat of torture. I am
going to repeat that. The church prevailed under the threat of
torture.
1748
English philosopher Jeremy Bentham. He said “As to the evils of
censorship, it is impossible to measure because there seems to be no
end to it.” That is one of the main reasons for the establishment
of the United States.
1912
English writer George Mikes. He said “British humor resembles
the Loch Ness monster in that both are famous but there is a strong
suspicion that neither one exists.”
1964
American comic Chris Farley. He paraphrased the famous quote by
Erasmus who said “In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is
king.” Chris Farley said “In the land of skunks, the man with
half a nose is king.”
Thanks
for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
No comments:
Post a Comment