Thursday

                        Musing and History

Quote of the day:

“Happiness is not found in possessions and gold; Happiness is found only in the soul.

                                                 Democritus

At one point in time some of the people of Scotland felt that English rule had become intolerable and a flood of immigrants came to America. Because of their rough cut and rowdy nature they were not welcomed by the snooty landowners in the northeast nor the Tidewater plantations down south so they headed west and settled in the Blue Ridge/Appalachian mountains. The residents felt they they would be a good buffer between their plantations and savage Cherokee, Creek and Choctaw. The immigrants brought certain idioms in their language with them. One of them is “Hillbilly”. This comes from a time when there was a political division in the Scotland. The Scottish Highlanders were loyal to King William or “King Billy”. The Highlanders became “King Billy's hill people” thus “Hillbilly”.

A few days after D-day a trumpeter/bugler came ashore and was playing Reveille in the morning and Taps at night. On one particular night his commander told him to not play Taps because they knew of one particular German sniper out there that they had not been able to locate. The trumpeter known as “Captain Jack” decided to play anyway, except he played Lili Marlene, which is almost the national song of Germany. Jack was not shot at but the next morning a team of Allied soldiers brought in 15 German prisoners and one of them said in broken English, “Who played the trumpet?” Captain Jack said that he was the trumpeter and they shook hands. The prisoner said that when he heard Lili Marlene he thought of his girl friend, his brothers and sister, his parents and grandparents and decided that he had rather live and surrendered. In this case, music made the difference.

Illegal immigrants are on all of our minds because of recent events. It reminded me of another time in the history of this nation. In the early 1800's many Irish immigrants landed on our shores. They were not welcomed for the most part. Primarily because of their fiery nature and they didn't speak English very well. Later on they proved their dedication to this country with the formation of the New York 69^th Regiment during the American Civil War. This unit was lead by an Irish immigrant named Thomas Meagher (pronounced Maar) and labeled “The Fighting 69th”. This unit was the third in the most casualties per unit during the entire war. Once they started and attack they did not stop until they were all dead or were victorious. They didn't have to fight with that kind of ferocity but they wanted this country to survive and was willing to die for it. I wonder if one of the stipulations of becoming an American citizen was four years in our military would make difference.

              This Date in History   September 21

1945 Henry Ford II takes over at Ford after the sudden death of his father. The company was rapidly approaching bankruptcy and needed help. The first thing Henry II did was fire the Personnel Chief Harry Bennett who for years had used strong armed tactics and a anti-union stance that made Ford famous for bad labor relations. Henry had virtually no management training or experience and he knew it. So he hired several young financial wizards led by Robert McNamara known as the “Whiz kids”. Among these young guys was a Princeton graduate named Lee Iacocca. As we all may or may not remember Robert McNamara later became the Secretary of Defense under JFK and Iacocca became president of Chrysler. The “whiz kids” saved Ford from bankruptcy and the rest is history.

1961 The US 5^th Special Forces Group, 1^st Special Forces is activated at Fort Bragg, NC by President JFK. Kennedy was very interested in this unit and came to visit. While there he specified that the unit was to be used to train the Vietnamese people to do their own counter-insurgency work. He also allowed them to wear a special headgear, the Green Beret. The 5^th Special Forces Group went to Nam in 1964 and assumed responsibility for all Special Forces. They zeroed in on the mountain people known as the Montagnards and trained them extensively. By 1970 there were about 42,000 men and women trained by the Green Berets in Nam and the Green Berets transferred responsibility to the South Vietnam Border Rangers for the rest of the war. The 5^th was withdrawn from Nam in February of 1971. The Green Berets executed their mission magnificently but sadly it seems that it was all for naught.

1938 The incredible happens when a category 3 hurricane struck New England. As with all Atlantic hurricanes the storm began off the west coast of Africa near the Cape Verde Islands. It became a hurricane as it approached the Leeward Islands and was reported to the US Weather Service by a ship. The hurricane headed for the Carolinas coast but suddenly turned north and followed the eastern seaboard. The US Weather Service thought the hurricane would dissipate over the colder waters but the storm was over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and held together. The howling storm came ashore over Long Island, NY with virtually no warning for the residents. As house by house was disintegrated by the onslaught and some of the residents were washed out to sea and were never seen again. The storm arrived at New London, Connecticut at high tide with 40 ft waves preceding it. New London was nearly leveled with many injuries and death. The next city in the path of this monster was Providence, Rhode Island and after all was said and done there was 13 feet of water in the city. This sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The hurricane dissipated over Nova Scotia. Hurricanes were not named in those days so this disaster is just known as the Storm of 1938. The final totals were: 600 dead, 9,000 homes destroyed and 15,000 damaged, 3,000 ships sunk. There hadn’t been a hurricane in New England for 100 years and I guess the residents were not worried about them. They do now.

1942 The first B-29 Super Fortress went on a test flight in Seattle, Washington. The bomber was an idea dreamed up by US Gen. Hap Arnold that wanted a bomber that could lift nearly its own weight and have a range of 3,000 plus miles. Boeing got the contract and delivered the bomber in minimum time. This bomber was instrumental in ending the war in the Pacific as the B-17 Flying Fortress was in ending the war in Europe during WWII. I guess the 2 most famous B-29s were the Enola Gay and Bock’s Car. The morning of August 6, 1945 saw the Enola Gay over Hiroshima, Japan and the morning of August 9, 1945 saw Bock’s Car over Nagasaki, Japan. Bock’s Car got its name from the pilot John Bock but on this day the pilot was Major Charles Sweeney.

Born today:

1966 Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland (son of Donald.) After being awarded the Golden Globe award he said “Now I know how Charlie Sheen felt. I’ve lost all feeling in my lower half.” I really enjoy his performance in “24”.

Died today:

19BC Roman writer Virgil. He said “It does not bother the wolf as to how many sheep there are.” That sounds like Robert E. Lee to me.

1947 US sportscaster Harry Carey, Sr. He said “There goes Steve Bullett into left field and he is getting congratulations from everybody. He and his sister are parents of a new baby.” How is that again, Harry?

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow