Friday

                                  Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“If I were to walk on water the press would say I did it because I couldn't swim.”

                                            President Jimmy Carter

Trivia question of the day:

What is the fastest swimming fish? Answer at the end of the blog.

Here is a few instances of how people’s lives change in an instant never to be the same again.

A Marine sergeant on Iwo Jima was assigned the duty as guard of the Company CP (command post) during the first night of that infamous battle. Very shortly after taking his post a Japanese soldier attacked with his bayoneted rifle. The Marine was able to parry the attack and threw the Japanese soldier to the ground. The soldier pulled out a hand grenade and tried to throw it at the Marine. The Marine was able to wrestle the grenade from the Japanese but the pin had already been pulled. The Marine grabbed the soldier and initiated a “bear hug” holding the sputtering grenade against the soldier’s back. The grenade exploded taking the Marines hand and most of his arm with it. The Japanese was literally cut into. The Marine later said that just before the grenade exploded, he and the soldier were so close that they were touching noses and looking at each other’s eyes only inches apart. He said that the look on the soldier’s face stayed with him forever as did the smell of the soldier before and after the explosion along with the texture of his uniform.

In Iraq an American soldier was standing beside his Humvee when he was shot in the back at close range. Fortunately he had on a flak jacket and was only stunned but was knocked to the ground. He looked under the Humvee and saw someone coming wearing Arab clothing and he could see the tip of a rifle hanging down. He shot one of the legs of the person approaching who fell to the ground instantly, it was a boy about 13 years old. The attacker with a surprised look stared at the American face to face under the Humvee and hesitated just for a second which cost him his life. The American shot hitting him in the forehead killing him instantly. The American soldier said that he has no idea why the attacker hesitated except maybe he had never seen his victims at such close range (about 10 feet)…or it could be that he finally realized that he was about to kill another human being, but the look on the attackers face will stay with him forever.

In the battle for Fallujah, Iraq a US Marine unit led by a Captain Howell burst into a house known to be occupied by al-Qaeda insurgents. There was no lighting in the building. Captain Howell entered a pitch black room and was struck on the left shoulder by an assassin using a two by four which broke his collar bone. Captain Howell grabbed the assassin with his good arm and finally was able to get his arm around the neck. He could not reach his knife because of the incapacitated left arm so he bit a chunk out of the man’s neck including the jugular and held on until he bled out. He said the man’s mouth was just a couple of inches from his face and as he struggled to live he started yelling curses at the Captain Howell but at the last he was praying to Allah. Captain Howell also said that the smell, feel of his struggles for life and even the taste of the man’s sweat will stay with him forever.

This Date in History February 1

1781 Earlier British General William Cornwallis and his cavalry commander the infamous Colonel Banastre Tarelton were beginning to realize that the war in the Carolinas and Georgia was lost and began moving north to join with the other British troops in New England. Cornwallis had left his encampment in Camden, South Carolina earlier. But he turned around when he found out about the slaughter of the British/Loyalists at the Battle of Kings Mountain, NC. Finally Cornwallis determined that it was safe enough to move north and the evacuation began. Awaiting him on the north side of the Catawba River at Cowan’s Ford in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina (a short distance south of Charlotte) was 600-800 North Carolina militia commanded by Brigadier General William Lee Davidson. Davidson’s father was an Ulster-Scot Presbyterian minister that had immigrated to the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area. He then moved to what is now Iradell County, North Carolina. Davidson had his troops away from the river a considerable distance in case Tarleton should cross at another location and attack the militia from the rear and pin them against the river. Finally, Cornwallis and his army arrive, supply wagons and all. The noise of the wagons awakens the sleeping guards and they open fire. The noise brings General Davidson running and almost instantly he is killed by a musket ball to the heart. The militia puts up a spirited fight but Cornwallis has his army cross in two columns, infantry/cavalry in one column and the wagons in the other. The crossing is successful and Cornwallis continued north. In 1835 General Davidson’s son, William Lee Davidson II, donated land to the Concord Presbytery in his father’s name. On this land was built the present day Davidson College.

1943 In July of 1942 the Japanese landed on one of the islands in the Solomon island chain named Guadalcanal. They went there to build an airfield to provide air support for their ships invading the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies. There were five islands in this particular group. The other four were Florida, Tulagi, Gavutu and Tananbogo. The Americans responded to the Japanese by invading all five of the islands but the heavier force went to Guadalcanal because of the airfield. Fortunately, it was bad weather and the Japanese patrol planes could not get off the ground and the 11,000 Marines assigned to Guadalcanal landed undetected and therefore there was no battle at water’s edge. There was a fierce but short battle at water’s edge for the other four smaller islands. After the outnumbered Japanese on Guadalcanal discovered the Marines had landed they retreated to the west end of the Island but very soon the Japanese landed additional troops and evened the odds. The Marines took the airfield within two days of landing but kicking the rest of the reinforced Japanese off the island became one of the major battles in WWII and is a milestone in the history of the United States Marines and the United States Navy. Throughout the whole time the Marines were on Guadalcanal the US Navy battled the formidable Japanese Navy for control of the seas around the island. There were so many ships of both sides sunk north and east of the island that it became known as “Iron Bottom Sound”. The US Marines had no experience in jungle warfare unlike the Japanese that had been jungle fighters for years. There were several major battles that almost every time resulted in hand-to-hand fighting. The American commanders had never seen anything like it. One of them wrote “I have never seen nor heard of anything like this. These people simply refuse to surrender”. The American Marines became accustom to mass killing on a regular basis. Finally on this date six months after landing the Marines sent out a patrol and did not make contact with the Japanese. They then did a detailed search and found no Japanese anywhere on the island. They had secretly evacuated at the direction of the Emperor. The battle would have lasted much longer but the US Navy was able to put 48 to 90 fighter/bombers on the airfield which provided air support for the ground troops. The main fighting force for the Marines was the 1^st and 7^th Regiment. After the island was secure a reporter came ashore and approached a ragged Marine and asked where the headquarters of the 1st Marines was. The Marine responded “Mister, there ain’t no more 1^st Marines.” Also it was here that the greatest Marine of them all, “Chesty” Puller fighting with the 7^th Marines won one of his five Navy crosses. The final result was the Japanese had lost 25,000 men to 1,600 Marines. But these figures can be misleading. Almost every person that stepped foot on Guadalcanal contracted malaria. They both lost 24 ships. War is hell, indeed.

Answer to the trivia question.

The fastest fish out there is the sailfish, they are capable of 68 MPH. The second fastest is the marlin at 50 MPH.

                 Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

                            Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Who was the guy that looked at a cow and said ‘I think I will drink whatever comes out of those things when I squeeze them?”

                                                       Bill Watterson

Trivia question of the day:

How did Joseph Kennedy (father of JFK and RFK) make the majority of his money?

I am reading the history of Scottish hero William Wallace who the movie “Braveheart” was about. The movie took many liberties about what he was really about. They showed Wallace and company winning the Battle of Sterling with a pure infantry engagement in an open field. What I read was it really as the Battle of Sterling Bridge. Sterling is a town northwest of Edinburgh (the Scots pronounce it “Edin-burah”) and has the Forth river running through. In the battle Wallace's forces were on the east side of the river and the army of Edward II on the west. The English army began crossing the only bridge within many miles. After a certain amount of the English army had crossed and Wallace knew he could defeat, he had his men to set fire to both ends of the bridge trapping the jam packed English army and cavalry. They could not jump into the river, they were in armor and would sink like an anvil. They jumped anyway rather than be burned alive while the horses went wild in their panic. Wallace then turned his attention to the troops that had made it across and annihilated them. Now you have the rest of the story.

            This Date in History   January 31

1865 Earlier United States President Abraham Lincoln had declared that the purpose of the Civil War was to preserve the Union. But after the major ass-kickings the Union army had received during the first year of the War, the northern public said “To hell with it, let the Rebs have their own country, stop the bloodbath.” So Abe had to took another tack to get the country back together so he now changed horses and said the purpose of the War was to free the slaves. It had been noticed that when the Union Army infrequently won a battle, the slaves nearby would join-up with the Yankee soldiers and they would not give them back to their owners. Then Abe issued the Emancipation Proclamation which allegedly freed the slaves in those states in rebellion. Abe’s advisers had in mind that those slaves in the Confederacy would rise up in rebellion upon hearing of the Emancipation but they were wrong, it did not happen and Abe stood there with egg on his face. The Confederacy did not consider themselves “states in rebellion”. They considered themselves as a separate and equally sovereign nation. Not only that there were four states that had slaves but had not seceded. What happened to those slaves? And finally, the Proclamation was not enforceable. I don’t know what Abe was thinking but the Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t worth paper it was written on. It took the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution (ratified on this date) to get the job done and it read in part ...”neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist in the United States nor any place subject to their jurisdiction....” Now the law had some teeth. This amendment passed the Senate and a House vote of 119-65, barely enough of a majority. The bill was introduced in 1864 but failed to pass the House vote because of “states rights” issues.

1923 One of my favorite writers is born on this day. Norman Mailer is born in Long Branch, New Jersey and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Norman was seen as a gifted child at an early age and was given a scholarship to Harvard during WWII but delayed his education and joined the army. After the war he attended the Sorbonne in Paris. While there he was encouraged to pursue his obvious writing skills and gave us one of the greatest war novels ever written in The Naked and the Dead. It is very unusual for an author to deliver such a blockbuster on their first try. He wrote a couple of more novels that were not as successful as his first. Norman joined the peace protest march in Washington in 1967 and wrote about his experiences in the book Armies of the Night and received a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for this one. Later he gave us another winner in The Executioners Song. It is the story of the last few days and months of convicted serial killer Gary Gilmore before Gary met his maker in front of a firing squad in Utah. Again, Norman received a Pulitzer Prize and another National Book Award. Norman is known as a two-fisted drinker/brawler and avid anti-feminists. He has written about nearly everything and everyone. He has written about politics, war, religion, etc and written biographies on people like Marilyn Monroe and Richard Nixon among many others. He wrote about the Chicago police riot during the Democratic National convention. His irascible nature and anti-feminisms has made him one of the most controversial in the entire literary world. It had been reported that he got into an argument with actor Rip Torn and the mother of all brawls ensued. He got into an argument with his wife at a party and chose to stab her in the arm. But no matter, Norman Mailer is one of the most versatile and talented writers this country has ever produced.

1945 During the later years of WWII the United States were running out of soldiers and lowered the draft requirements. Eddie Slovik had originally been rejected because of a Grand Theft Auto conviction. Since the lowering of the standards Slovik was re-classified as 1-A, trained and sent to France to join the 28^th Division as a private. Slovik got lost in the turmoil of battle and ended up with a Canadian outfit. Slovik was a hater of guns and a pacifist and refused to fight. The Canadians finally got fed up with Slovik and turned him over to MP’s of the 28^th Division. Slovik told his commanding officer that he does not want to fight and ran away to the Canadians again. He is again returned to the MP’s of the 28^th Division. This time his commander gives him a choice to go immediately to his combat team or face a firing squad. Slovik refused and a date is set for his execution. He appealed to General Dwight Eisenhower but this is a bad time for this because the Battle of the Bulge was underway and American soldiers were dying by the hundreds. Eisenhower rejected Slovik’s appeal and on this date at dawn, a firing squad of seven riflemen ended the life of Private Eddie Slovik for cowardice and desertion. He was the first man in the United States military that was executed since the Civil War. It was reported that the men in the firing squad never flinched because they believed he was getting what he deserved. Maybe so, maybe not.

Born today:

1892 US entertainer Eddie Cantor. He said “Every time I see a Most Wanted list I have this thought. If they had been wanted in their youth, would they be wanted now?” I wonder if Atilla the Hun was wanted as a youth.

1905 US writer John O’Hara. He said “So who is perfect? Washington had false teeth, Ben Franklin was nearsighted, Mussolini had syphilis, unpleasant things have been said about Walt Whitman and Oscar Wilde, Tchaikovsky had his problems too, and Lincoln was constipated a lot.”

1921 US actor John Agar. He said “Hell I don’t drink anymore than John Wayne, Ward Bond, Spencer Tracy, Alan Ladd or Robert Walker but I got in hell of a lot more trouble.” John you got into showbiz ony becaue you were married to Shirley Temple.

Answer to the trivia question:

Joseph Kennedy made a lot of money during prohibition by illegally bringing whiskey into the United States from Canada. But the major coup was buying vast quantities of scotch whiskey in Ireland and Scotland and letting it sit in rail tanker cars until prohibition ended then he almost had a corner of the scotch market.

                  Thanks for listening I can’t wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

                                 Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“If they offered me a knighthood they will have to do it soon, while I can still rise from the kneeling position without help.”

                                                     Roy Hudd

Trivia question of the day:

How many American presidents were slave owners? Answer at the end of the blog.

In 1625 the king of England James I had died. James was a powerful leader and was responsible for the establishment of the first European settlement on the banks of a small river in North America and the settlement and the river was named for him, James river and Jamestown. After James’ death his son became king as Charles I. Right from the git-go Charles had a problem with Parliament. He wanted unquestioned authority in the affairs of England and so did Parliament. Charles dissolved Parliament on several occasions and ran everything himself but found out that he had bitten off more than he could chew and re-instated Parliament. Another reason that Charles was in the hot seat was that he had married a French Catholic named Henrietta Maria. By far the greatest population of England and indeed Parliament were Protestants. In those days a person in power’s religion was a big deal. The squabble between Charles and Parliament reached the boiling point and in 1642 the first civil war broke out with the army loyal to Charles against the Parliamentary army, known as the Ironsides Army, led by Oliver Cromwell. In 1644 the army led by Cromwell beat the crap out of the Loyalist army at Marston Moor and again the next year at Naseby. Finally Cromwell and Parliament prevailed and Charles I was convicted of treason and on this date King Charles I went to meet his maker in two pieces courtesy of the ever present big guy in a black hood with a big axe. This put Oliver Cromwell in command and the monarchy was dissolved. He could not be crowned king because he was not of royal blood. Cromwell ruled until his death in 1658 when his son Richard took over. Richard was not a good leader and saw the handwriting on the wall and went into exile in France the next year. The English people restored the monarchy with the placement of Charles II, the son of Charles I. Charles II wanted his pound of flesh and Oliver Cromwell was posthumously convicted of treason and his 11 year old remains were dug up and hung from the gallows at Tyburn. What sight that must have been.

             This Date in History   January 30

1972 Earlier the English Parliament had decreed that anyone that seemed to be a threat to the peace in Northern Ireland would be arrested. We all know how hot blooded the Irish are anyway and with this obvious trampling of their rights would not stand without action. A group of civil rights workers notified the Londonderry authorities that they would be forming a civil rights march on this date in protest of what Parliament had decreed. The Londonderry and British authorities disallowed the march but the marchers showed up anyway. The British responded with sending in a platoon of Royal paratroopers with instructions to stop the march by whatever mean it took. When the marchers reached the paratroopers that had the road blocked, the paratroopers indiscriminately open fire with automatic weapons into the unarmed crowd. The result was 13 killed and 19 wounded and is known to this day as “Bloody Sunday”. As you can guess, the entire free world raised almighty hell and money flowed into the Irish Republican Army like the Amazon meaning that the British would have their hands full with the IRA for years to come.

1816 Future United States Army General Nathaniel Banks is born in Waltham, Massachusetts. Banks was the son of textile workers and did not have much of a formal education but he studied on his own and eventually became an attorney and friends with those in high places in the government of Massachusetts. At the outbreak of the Civil War the United States Army was desperate for field commanders so they gave Banks the rank of General and gave him an army and unfortunately sent him and his army to invade the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I say unfortunately for Banks because CSA General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson had been tasked with the protection of the Valley. What we have here is a brilliant career military officer in Jackson opposed by a military leader with zero experience in Banks. The outcome is predictable. Banks received a severe ass-kicking on two different occasions and lost so many supplies to Jackson the he was known as “Commissary Banks.” The Union Army saw that he was out of his element and sent his young ass to New Orleans. Banks was able to capture the Confederate encampment of Port Hudson but at a terrible cost. In 1864 he set out on the mission known as the Red River Expedition. He started out in mid-Louisiana heading up the Red River into northern Louisiana and Texas. He had several Union gunboats following his advance to supply artillery support when needed. The problem here was that he found the need to move inland somewhat to avoid swamp lands. A Confederate Army had been watching and when Banks was out of range of the gunboats, they fell like locusts on Bank’s and his army was virtually annihilated. Banks retreated to New Orleans and never again was in command of Union troops.

1943 On this night, the British Royal Air Force launched its first of many nighttime bombing raids of Berlin, Germany. Eventually it was the British at night and the American 8^th Air Force flying out of bases in England in daytime raids. To all of you who have not researched what devastation can be delivered from the air with conventional bombs need to look at aerial photos of Berlin, Frankfort, Hamburg and other German cities after the war. There was nothing left y'all. They were just large piles of rubble. On one raid, the 8^th Air Force sent over 1,000 bombers to Hamburg and dropped enough bombs to turn Hamburg into kindling and that night the British came in and dropped incendiaries and set the whole city on fire. At one point there was a fire in the middle of the city that was so hot that the air was going 200 MPH into the flames taking everything light enough with it. The British pilots said they could smell burning flesh from an altitude of 8,000 feet. You talk about hell on earth, this was it.

Born today:

1882 US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He sent a cable to England’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill and he said “It is a pleasure to be in the same decade with you”. Sir Winston was the very image and demeanor of an English bulldog. There was a story about him that came out of WWII. The English had cracked the German secret code called Enigma. Through this find, Churchill found out that the German air force was going to bomb Coventry, one of the greatest of all the English cities and on what day it would occur. Churchill decided not to warn the citizens of Coventry because the German would have realized their code has been broken. What a terrible burden that had to be for Sir Winston.

1948 US Inventor of the first self propelled airplane Orville Wright. He said “Isn’t it astonishing that all these secrets have been preserved for so many years just so me and my brother could discover them.” Yes it is, Orville, yes it is.

1930 One of my favorite actors Gene Hackman. He said “Dysfunctional families have sired a number of pretty good actors.”

Answer to the trivia question:

14 American presidents were slave owners from George Washington to Ulysses S. Grant.

              Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

                          Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“The ability to witness two men stand toe to toe in the spirit of sportsmanship and pummel each other into insensibility is what separates us from the animals.”

                 “Reverend Jim” Ignatowski (Christopher Lloyd), Taxi

Trivia question of the day:

In India workers in the forests will wear a facial image mask on the back of their heads...why?

                      This Date in History January 29

1936 On this date the first baseball players were selected for the newly opened Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. They were Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson. Ty Cobb, to this day, is the most productive hitter to ever play the game. Babe Ruth was both an ace pitcher and a devastating home run hitter, Honus Wagner was a versatile infielder and a dependable clutch hitter, Christy Mathewson had the most wins in National League history up until that time and Walter “Big Train” Johnson is considered to be one of the most powerful pitchers in history. The Hall of Fame was supposed to have opened in 1935 but money was at a premium because of the Depression so the opening was delayed. The rumor was spread that Civil War General Abner Doubleday was the inventor of baseball in Cooperstown but that was bullshit. The local businesses fostered that idea to pump up business and they made contributions toward the building of the Hall. The Hall of Fame has about 350,000 visitors a year.

1820 After 10 years of a debilitating disease that lead to total insanity, King George III of England died. King George was the chief antagonist of the American colonists that resulted in the American Revolutionary War. King George knew that he was not well and was desperately seeking someone that he could trust to take care of business in his behalf. He found one in Lord North and King George was very relieved. The problem was that England lost its most profitable colony in America and the English people were furious. In 1784 William Pitt the elder gained enough power in Parliament to take control. After this the King retired from active participation in government except for an occasional interference with major issues such as “Catholic Emancipation” which was defeated in 1801. I have not researched this issue but I will soon. King George had a long history of illness beginning in 1765 when he had a nervous breakdown and in the winter of 1788-89 he had a severe bout with mental illness. By 1810 he was permanently insane but he was cared for tenderly by his wife Charlotte Sophia. His son, the Prince of Wales, was named regent and assumed throne as King George IV when his father died in 1820.

1861 On this date Kansas was admitted to the Union as a “free state”. This act was one of the prime causes of the American Civil War. Kansas was bordered on the east by Missouri and on the south by Texas; both were slave-holding states. There were many bloody skirmishes on the Kansas-Missouri border in the struggle for and against slavery. The United States Congress brought Kansas in as a “free state” in order to show support of the anti-slavery factions in the state and it blew up in their faces when the war broke out a few months later. I am not suggesting that slavery is acceptable but just that is what happened. After the Civil War got cranked up the attacks on Kansas and Missouri reached a crescendo with many atrocities committed by both pro and anti slavery factions. An example of each was when the fervent anti-slavery leader John Brown went to a small community in Missouri and slaughtered five people with a broad sword because “he thought” they were pro slavery. Then a pro slavery Confederate guerilla leader named William Quantrill leads his troops into Lawrence, Kansas and that group killed over 150 men and burned the town to the ground. Prejudice has no limits.

Born today:

1737 Super American Patriot Thomas Paine. He said “When we are planning for posterity, we must remember that virtue is not hereditary.” Paine was one of the greatest wordsmiths this country ever produced.

1862 English composer Fredrick Delius. He said “Music is an outburst of the soul”. Indeed Fred, indeed.

1874 US industrialist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. He said “A friendship based on business is better that a business based on friendship.” The Rockefeller dynasty began with the establishment of Standard Oil which eventually became Exxon.

1880 US comedian W.C. Fields. He said “My illness is due to my doctor insisting that I drink milk. It is a whitish fluid that they force down helpless babies.” Fields was a famous imbiber.

1923 US writer Paddy Chayefsky. He said “"Now listen to me, goddamnit! The Arabs are simplying buying us! A handful of gas, shahs, and emirs who despise this country and everything it stands for—democracy, freedom, the right for me to get up on television and tell you about it—a couple of dozen medieval fanatics are going to own where you work, where you live, what you read, what you see, your cars, your bowling alleys, your mortgages, your schools, your churches, your libraries, your kids, your whole life...!" Pay attention to Paddy, y'all, It could happen.

1939 Australian feminist Germaine Greer. She said “Freud is the father of psychoanalysis, it has no mother.” I agree, Germaine.

Answer to the trivia question:

Most of the time a tiger will not attack a human from the front...the mask is supposed to fool tigers into thinking their back is also the front.

                  Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

                           Musings and History

Quote of the day:

US General John Sedgwick rode up to a high point to observe the progress of the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse during the Civil War. Up on arrival his staff told him that he ought to take cover. Sedgwick said “They couldn't hit an elephant at this dis…..”

Trivia question of the day:

Who played Captain Marco Ramius in the movie “Hunt For Red October”? Answer at the end of the blog.

A while back a woman was asleep on a USAir flight from Boston to Charlotte. She was awakened by her seatmate that she did not know massaging her breasts. She woke up and told the masher to knock it off and then called a flight attendant, but before the attendant got there he had copped yet another feel. The attendant found her another seat and told the pilot about these events the he notified the Charlotte USAir ops about the situation. A couple of Charlotte’s finest was waiting at the gate for this jackass. I wonder what row she was on…how deeply she slept, etc, etc? I am just joking.

Here is an event that I experienced as an air traffic controller. It was at Moody Air Force Base near Valdosta, Ga. Moody was a training base for all-weather interceptors. After a class got to a certain point, drone aircraft would be launched from Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, Florida to a point in the Gulf of Mexico and the fighter/interceptors from Moody would be radar guided toward the drone until the aircraft radar picked it up, then the fighter was to shoot down the drone, regardless of the weather. One of the pilots in training had a wife that was afraid for her husband flying fighters. Her husband had received special permission for his wife to watch a “maximum effort” night launch from the control tower where I was. It was supposed to give her confidence. Her husband successfully got his F-86D off the ground and was up to about 500 feet when he declared “Mayday” meaning he was in serious trouble. His plane exploded into a ball of flame and crashed to the earth about 2 miles south of the base. There is no need for me to tell you what turmoil ensued. She was pregnant, too.

               This Date in History   January 28

1777 On this date British General John Burgoyne submitted a battle plan to British General Sir Henry Clinton. Burgoyne suggested that he head a large force of 8,000 troops out of Canada and go down Lake Champlain, the Mohawk River and eventually the Hudson River and isolate New England from the rest of the colonies. Burgoyne felt that if he could accomplish this it would make Philadelphia ripe for the picking by British General Howe. The plan was approved and Burgoyne achieved a modicum of success when he captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. What Burgoyne did not plan on was the over extension of his supply lines the further south he moved. Eventually the Patriots simply swung around and cut his supply line. Soon after this Burgoyne lost the Battle of Bennington, Vermont and engaged in a bloody draw at Bemis Heights, New York. After these battles he was unable to re-supply his troops so he retreated 16 miles north to Saratoga, New York and surrendered his remaining 6,000 troops to US General Horatio Gates. When the government of France saw this victory they officially recognized the United States as an independent nation which, of course, meant war with England. France had been covertly sending America money and the tools of war now they did it openly and with much more supplies. This decision by France assured an American victory because it meant that England would have to fight a war on both sides of the Atlantic.

1958 On this date a 19 year old high school dropout from Lincoln, Nebraska named Charles Starkweather and his 14 year old girlfriend Carol Fugate murdered a Lincoln business man, his wife and their maid. This was the last in a string of 10 murder committed by the duo. This murder spree began at the home of Carol and an argument broke out between Charles and Carol’s parents. Charles chose to shoot Carol’s parent and strangle Carol’s two year old sister. Carol and Charles stayed holed up in the house for a few days before leaving in Charles’ car. Their next victims was a farmer and two teens and after that it was the previously mention Lincoln businessman, wife and maid. They were not done yet. They shot and killed a traveling shoe salesman to get his car. They were surrounded and captured near Douglas, Wyoming. Both Charles and Carol were convicted of murder and Charles got the death penalty and Carol got life. In 1959 Charles Starkweather went to meet his maker medium rare after a visit with the Nebraska version of “Old Sparky”, the electric chair. Carol was paroled after 18 years in the slammer. How could that girl sit in the house with her dead parents and sister for several days? They paroled her because she was so young at the time of the murders. I will have to call bullshit on that.

1986 On this day the space shuttle Challenger was set to launch for the 10^th time. All previous missions with this vessel had been flawless. The shuttle had been scheduled to launch on January 22 but there were weather issues so the launch date was pushed back to January 28. Aboard with the regular astronauts was a school teacher name Christa McAuliffe from New Hampshire. The outside air temperature was below freezing and the rocket booster manufacturer warned the launch officials that some of the parts of the rocket booster do not operate well in cold weather, especially the O-ring seals. They warned that they became brittle in the cold and would hot hold. The launch officials blew it off and at 11:39a the Challenger blasted off. Seventy-three seconds into the flight the shuttle exploded into a spectacular three armed display and fell into the Atlantic killing all aboard. An investigation later proved that an O-ring seal had indeed failed and the flame from the rocket boosters had not been contained inside the cylinder causing an explosion. The arrogance of the launch officials in allowing the launch in spite of being warned set space exploration back several years.

Born today:

1887 Polish pianist Arthur Rubenstein. He said “When I was young, I had success with women because I was young. Now I have success with women because I am old. Middle age was hell.” Way to go, Arthur, way to go!

1933 US writer Susan Sontag. She said “The best answer is one that destroys the question.” Susan is no longer with us.

1948 Latvian dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov. He said “When we dancers watch Fred Astaire, we know we are in the wrong business.” Fred was a pleasure to watch.

Died today:

1960 US writer Zora Hurston. She said “Every distant ship has every man’s dream aboard.” It does for me at least.

1996 Russian writer Josef Brodsky. He said “Life, the way it really is, is not a battle between bad and good, it is a battle between bad and worse.” And I thought I was a pessimist.

Answer to the trivia question:

Captain Marco Ramius in the movie “Hunt For Red October” was played by Sean Connery.

                       Thanks for listening  I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Friday

                          Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“The trouble with jogging is that the olive keeps bouncing out of your martini glass.”

                                               Martin Mull

Trivia question of the day:

What are the largest naturally occurring big cats in the world? Answer at the end of the blog.

I saw an obviously ignorant but well known news analyst on a program a few days ago. The moderator pointed out that some of the changes that he suggests are clearly a violation of several Bill of Rights Amendments and promotes the change from a democratic republic form of government that we now have as described in the US Constitution. The US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are the two most important documents in the history of western man. This jackass said that the Constitution was out of date and hard to understand and should be abolished and another form of government examined. I cannot tell you how outraged I was. I had to go take another high blood pressure pill and another Lexapro. I thought I had control of my temper a lot better lately, I was wrong. A group of very intelligent men and women got together and hammered out a way to live in freedom and guaranteed it with the Bill of Rights and this jackass want to change it because it is adverse to what he wants. I will tell y’all something in metaphor. This great ship of State known as The United States was carved out of the bones of our ancestors and is afloat on a sea of their blood from the deep past and present day military heroes that die every day in YOUR behalf to preserve YOUR freedom. All of this is glued together with a love and faith of our founding fathers and the faith and love we have for each other. We all sail along on this ship designed by Thomas Jefferson and friends. Then some arrogant jackass says that the Constitution should be trashed. He should go read any Medal of Honor citation and find out what being an American is all about because he certainly is not. The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are the most treasured documents ever written and will stay that way as long as this old, grey-haired Patriot is alive. It makes me teary eyed to think on it. Don't test me...don't do that.

I don't get it, y'all. I and all of my friends and family on both sides had firearms readily accessible. I got a .22 rifle (Remington, single shot, bolt action) for Christmas when I was 13 but I frequently went hunting with my father's shotgun (Stevens 12 ga. single shot, breech load). Even when I was in the Air Force in Alaska I could go check out a shotgun (Ithaca 3” 12 ga. pump for ducks and geese), pistol (S&W .357 mag. 6 shot revolver, at the time required by law in Alaska when hunting) and a high powered rifle (Winchester Model 70 30.06 w/4x Weaver scope) anytime I wanted. Neither I nor anyone I know ever considered shooting anyone.

The guns haven't changed...people have. I could offer a multitude of opinions about what has happened to the American personae when it comes to weapons but you can't legislate morality, that is learned at home. That, my friends, is where the problem lies.

Recently a grandfather down in McCormick, South Carolina gave his granddaughter a dog. Later on the dog attacked the 9 year old girl and killed her with a bite to the throat. The dog was an Akita, a dog that originated in Japan and was bred for fighting and as a guard dog. This dog is renowned for its viciousness and willingness to attack without provocation. Not a good animal for a nine year old.

         This Date in History January 25

1945 On this date, after a stiff fight the Russian army broke through the German defenses near Auschwitz, Poland. What they found here was evidence of the most cruel and inhumane treatment of human beings yet recorded. It was a death camp of unimaginable proportions. There were three main camps, I, II and III with 8 other “satellite” camps. This camp had but one purpose and that was killing of human beings. The Russians discovered ovens with human remains still inside smoking, metal buildings with an opening for the insertion of poison gas. The German’s used Cyklon B gas. It was an insecticide and easy and cheap to make, the down side was that it did not kill quickly meaning that the people that were put inside those buildings knew after a short while that they were being poisoned and fought and struggled for life. The Russians found 645 corpses and 7,000 walking skeletons who told them that the guards found out that the Russians were close and they began killing all that they could until they ran out of ammo and then they began blowing up the crematoria and death buildings. The Russians also found three warehouses that were stacked to the top with women’s dresses, men’s suits and shoes that the German’s did not have a chance to destroy. And finally they discover the laboratories and journals of Dr. Josef Mengele. This monster performed inconceivably cruel and inhuman medical experiments on the prisoners, especially children. There are many records of what this animal did to others but I will not describe them now. But I can tell you that when the Russian army left Auschwitz, they had lost all mercy and remorse for any and all Germans and killed all they found, man, woman, children, dogs, cats, geese, ducks, etc...They intended to wipe the slate clean of Germans. When one particular Russian tank crew entered Berlin they were confronted by an antitank gun manned by seven Germans no older than 14. The Russians destroyed the German crew and repeatedly ran back and forth across the corpses with their tank until there was nothing there that could be identified as human. Hate with no remorse, all wars depend on it.

1905 About noon of this day, the supervisor of the Premier Diamond Mine in South Africa in making an inspection and stopped briefly and noticed something sticking out of the wall above his head. He pulls out the largest diamond ever found. It is a 3,160 carat monster that was named the Star of Africa. The diamond is sent to the greatest diamond cutter in the world in Amsterdam for cutting and polishing. The cutter examines the stone for six months before making the first cut. When he decides where the cut will be made, he has a doctor standing by in case he makes a wrong cut and shatters the stone. He is successful and he produces two gigantic polished stone that are now in the Tower of London as part of the British National Treasury. There were hundreds of smaller stones also that made the Star of Africa the most valuable gem ever found.

Born today:

1759 Scottish poet Robert Burns. He said “There is nothing more uncertain as a sure thing.” Obviously Robert has been to a horse track.

1882 English writer Virginia Woolf. She said “On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.”

1950 US writer Gloria Naylor. She said “I don’t believe life is supposed to make you feel good, or make you feel miserable either. Life is just supposed to make you feel.”

Answer to the trivia question:

The largest naturally occurring big cats in the world is the Siberian tiger. A full grown adult male weighs about 700 lbs and stands about 40 inches tall at the shoulder.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

                                           Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Michael Jackson looks great for the age of 44 but frankly, I think he has had some work done.”

                                                              Jimmy Fallon

Trivia question of the day:

What is the tallest waterfall in the world and where is it? Answer at the end of the blog.

A while back a 43 year old man named Wayne Ridge got into an argument with someone staying at the Sunset Inn motel near Gaffney, South Carolina. The Sunset is famous for “short term” use, if you get my drift. The motel manager came out and told Ridge to get off the property. Ridge did leave but returned about 2 hours later in the company of his 17 year old son Randall and they began pounding on the man's door. In a moment of stupidity, the man opened the door. Wayne and Randall grabbed the man and dragged him out on the lawn and began stabbing and hacking on him. At the moment the pounding began the office manger called the cops and when they arrived the Ridges were still on the property. The Ridges were arrested and the man was taken to the hospital to be sewn up with non life threatening injuries. This is not the first time that Wayne Ridge has been in an encounter with the cops at the Sunset Inn. Back in 2008 Wayne had picked up a “working girl” that was in the restaurant next door to the Sunset Inn, the restaurant was Mister Waffle. Working girls on I-85 in the Gaffney area do not have much to work with. Wayne got an argument with the girl and started to beat on her. Fortunately for the girl, there was a cop inside Mister Waffle and he came out and tried to break it up. Wayne wanted to fight and on this occasion, the cop put Wayne in the hospital with help of pepper spray and a five cell cast aluminum flashlight. Wayne is a great example for his kid, isn’t he? Wayne got bail in the amount of $50,000 and Randall got $25,000, what a wonderful family.

                         This Date in History   January 24

1781 On this date the combined cavalry forces of the Virginian Lieutenant Colonel Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee and South Carolinian Brigadier General Francis “The Swamp Fox” Marion descended upon a 200 man British encampment near Georgetown, South Carolina. Henry Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia and was the father of CSA General Robert E. Lee. Francis Marion was born on a plantation near Georgetown, South Carolina. Marion had been given command of the South Carolina Militia while the commander, Thomas “The Gamecock” Sumter, was recovering from a severe wound. The raid came as a complete surprise to the British and the Patriots were able to capture a large portion on the encampment including several officers and the camp commander. A month later “Light-Horse Harry” Lee was able to destroy another British unit on the banks of the Haw River in North Carolina. Lee’s unit was able to close in on the British without opposition this was because the uniforms worn by the Patriots were very similar to those worn by the British cavalry unit of the infamous Colonel Banastre Tarleton. When the Patriots were within sight of the British they waved greeting to them and kept it up until they were within striking distance. After this is was nothing short of a slaughter. The British commander, Colonel John Pyle, lost three fingers and the sight of one eye during the attack but was able to escape by jumping into a nearby pond and hiding in the reeds. To this day that body of water is known as “Pyle’s Pond”.

1956 Earlier a 14 year old black kid from Chicago named Emmett Till was visiting his great-uncle on his farm near Money, Mississippi. He bragged to the locals there that he had a white girlfriend in Chicago and was challenged to see if he could get one there in Mississippi. Emmett was the typical teenager and accepted the challenge. He went into the local convenience store and made a pass at a married white woman working there. A couple of days later the woman’s husband came home from a business trip and was told of what happened with Emmett. So J.W. Milam and his cousin Roy Bryant went to Emmett’s great-uncle’s farm and kidnapped Emmett. I don’t have to tell you what happened next. They beat Emmett to death with their pistols; Milam and Bryant took Emmett’s corpse to the crest of the Tallahatchie Bridge, wrapped barbed wire around Emmett’s neck and the other end to a heavy cotton gin fan and threw them both off the bridge. The corpse was eventually discovered and Milam and Bryant were arrested and went to trial for murder. They were acquitted because the defense lawyer was able to convince the jury that the corpse was so decomposed that the true identification could not be determined. The prosecution produced a ring that was found on the corpse that was known to be owned by Emmett. The defense blew it off as being stolen. Anyway, because of the law of double jeopardy Milam and Bryant, knowing they could not be tried again, on this date sold their description of the murder of Emmett to Look magazine for $4,000. Emmett’s mother retrieved his corpse back to Chicago and in her anger held an open casket funeral that was attended by over 5,000 people. No other attempts to bring Milam and Bryant to justice but they both died of cancer a few years later. God works in mysterious ways.

1943 On this date the commander of the German 6^th Army, General Frederick von Paulus, entreated Hitler to allow his army to surrender. Hitler refused. Earlier Hitler had launched Operation Barbarossa which was the attempt to conquer Russia. There were three armies that departed Germany on this mission. Paulus was the commander of the central army whose main target was the capture of the city of Stalingrad. Upon arrival at the gates of Stalingrad he ran across a nut he could not crack so he surrounded the city and established a siege in an attempt to starve the people into submission. In spite of millions starving to death, the city did not fall. Eventually the Russian army got on its feet and attacked Paulus’ army at its weakest point, the Romanian detachment. After breaking through here, the Russians swarmed around the Germans and encircled them cutting off their supplies. After the Russians had overrun his last airfield, Paulus knew the end was near especially since the arrival of the worst winter in fifty years. A few days after the loss of this airfield, Paulus surrendered his army to the Russians, Adolph Hitler be damned. The Russians, remembering the people that starved to death in Stalingrad, accepted the surrender and gathered up the 500,000 half starved, half frozen Germans and sent them to prison camps. Of those that were captured, only 5,000 ever lived to see Germany again. Paulus was tried at the Nuremberg War Crimes trials, but was released and spent his last days in East Berlin.

Answer to the trivia question:

The tallest waterfall in the world is Angel Falls in Venezuela. This monster is 3,212 feet high.  This waterfall was named after Jimmy Angel an American pilot that first sighted and reported it.

                Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

                            Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I went to a Pavarotti concert once. He does not like it when you join in.”

                                                   Mick Miller

Trivia question of the day:

Ancient historian Plutarch reported that in Macedonia in the year 344 BC Phillip the king of Macedonia was offered a horse that was a magnificent animal but was wild. His 13 year old son Alexander walked out and immediately had the horse in control. He saw that the horse was afraid of his shadow, made sure the horse never saw it and the horse was his the rest of his life. He became Alexander the Great...what was the name of the horse? Answer at the end of the blog.

US President George W. Bush was suspended from flying with the Texas National Guard because he had missed his annual physical examination. Dubya’s military record is a little murky, to say the least. He was honorably discharged in 1973 so he could attend the Harvard Business School. Many of his enemies claim that this action pre-empted him from being drafted and going to Vietnam and is nothing short of draft dodging. They also claim that Dubya was AWOL for six months to a year at a time and it was protected by his father. He always said that he fulfilled his military obligation and his military record indicated that he did. But those records could have been manipulated also. I will let y’all make your own decisions.

              This Date in History   January 23

1865 On this date CSA General John Bell Hood is relieved of command of the CSA Army of Tennessee thus ending a sad chapter in the history of the United States. Hood had requested to be relieved a couple of weeks earlier. John Bell Hood was born in Kentucky and graduated from West Point in 1853. As with most of his class, he served in the western theater until hostilities broke out at the start of the Civil War. Hood resigned his commission and offered his services to the famous Texas 4^th Infantry. His regiment was sent to serve with CSA General Robert E. Lee and the equally famous Army of Northern Virginia. Hood served with distinction in the Peninsular Campaign and especially in the Battle of the Seven Days in 1862. Hood aggressive nature did not go unnoticed and he was eventually given command of a division. There is little question that his aggressive counter-attack at the Battle of Antietam saved General Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia from total annihilation. His next major assignment came at the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg in June of 1863 when he was ordered to attack the left flank of the Union lines on a hill known as Little Round Top. He had under his command was the 4^th and 5^th Texas, the 5^th Alabama and a number of other regiments totaling about 2,500 men. He was attacking the 20^th Maine numbering about 300. At the onset of the battle Hood was severely wounded and lost the use of an arm as a result. Hood’s troops were not successful in turning the flank of the Union army on Little Round Top only because of the stubbornness of the 20^th Maine and the resolve of their commander Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain. Hood spent quite a bit of time recuperating from this severe wound. Hood resumed his duties with the CSA Army of Tennessee and fought at the bloody Battle of Chickamauga where he was again severely wounded which resulted in the loss of a leg. When US General William T. Sherman began his attack across the state of Georgia beginning near Chattanooga, Tennessee and aimed at Atlanta and the port of Savannah, CSA General Joseph Johnston was in command of the CSA Army of Tennessee. Johnston knew he was out manned and outgunned and chose to use defensive strategy by digging in, fight and retreat. The closer Sherman got to Atlanta, the more nervous CSA President Jefferson Davis became. Finally Davis decided that the CSA needed a more aggressive commander of the Army of Tennessee and relieved Johnston and named Hood as his replacement. Hood assumed command and immediately struck hard at Sherman’s army in three different futile and costly attacks in and around Atlanta. Eventually Hood pulled his army out of Atlanta, moved west and headed north back toward Chattanooga hoping that Sherman would follow to protect his supply line but it didn’t happen that way. Hood finally moved the Army of Tennessee within striking distance of Sherman’s vital supply line near Nashville, Tennessee. Another Union army was dug-in and waiting but Hood flung what was left of his army at the Union fortifications in two unsuccessful and even more costly attacks. At the end of these two battles the CSA Army of Tennessee ceased to exist as a viable fighting force. When Hood took command in July of 1864, the CSA Army of Tennessee had 64,000 troops, when he was relieved on this day there were 18,000. War is hell.

1870 This is another incidence of the American cavalry out of control. Earlier a Montana cattle rancher named Malcolm Clarke had accused a Blackfoot sub-chief name Owl Child of stealing his horses and had savagely whipped him in public. As you might expect, Owl Child returned with a group of his closest friends and capped Clarke and his son in the most horrible of fashions and then fled north to join up with a group of rebel warriors led by another Blackfoot named Mountain Chief. The public outcry became so loud that the military Indian agent in that area notified Colonel Eugene Baker to gather up some troops and cavalrymen and seek out Owl Child and bring him in. The only problem here is that Colonel Baker is heavy into the sauce and stays in the bag most of the time. The force led by Baker set out looking for Owl Child. Finally, some of Baker’s Indian scouts find an Indian encampment. They return and tell Baker what they had found but they could tell by the markings on the teepees that they were not of the tribe that Owl Child belonged to, that they were a peaceful group of Blackfeet. Baker absorbs this information along with another quart of whiskey and at dusk he says “I don’t care, they are still Indians” and orders his troops to surround the village and open fire and burn anything combustible including their meager food supply. The troopers surround the encampment and did indeed open fire and burned all that would burn. The Indians have no idea what the hell is going on and are massacred. The total killed was 39 men, 60 women and 55 children. Baker allowed the capture of a few of them but when he found out that some of them have smallpox, a gift from the damned Europeans, and ordered them released out onto the prairie in a Montana winter with no food. When word of this atrocity reachedthe east there is a loud outcry and demands are made to correct this situation. President Ulysses Grant ordered that all Indian agents must be civilians from now on. But the troopers and Colonel Baker were never brought to justice. No wonder Crazy Horse, Dull Knife, Red Cloud, Sitting Bull and the others were so vicious and cruel in their retribution. What goes around….

1556 In the middle of the afternoon the ground around the Chinese city of Shannxi begins to heave and shake. It is the beginning of the most deadly earthquake in recorded history. The city is a conglomeration of small shacks and huts that are heated by charcoal braziers that also serve as a stove. The aftershocks continue until the following morning triggering huge crevasses that open and close crushing thousands of people along with miles long landslides not to mention the fires. After all was said and done there were an estimated 830,000 deaths. I am going to repeat this: 830,000 deaths. The second largest disaster in history was the tsunami of 2004 in the Indian Ocean. There were only 240,000 deaths there. Repeat: 240,000 deaths.

Answer to the trivia question:

Alexander the Greats horse's was named Bucephalus.

                 Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow