SemperFidelisNoah

2012-02-07T05:38:00.000-06:00

John Philip Sousa
United States Marine
The March King
Performing Arts, 1854-1932

John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor, famous for his patriotic military marches. He was given the nickname "The March King."

Early years

John Philip Sousa was born on November 6, 1854, in Washington, D.C. He was the third of 10 children. His parents were John Antonio Sousa and Maria Elisabeth Trinkhaus. His father played the trombone in a military band, so John grew up around military band music. When John was six, he began to study voice and numerous instruments, including violin, piano, flute, cornet, baritone, and trombone. When John was 13 years old, he attempted to run away and join a circus band, so his father enlisted him in the U.S. Marines as an apprentice.

In 1872, John published his first composition, "Moonlight on the Potomac Waltzes." In 1875, he was discharged from the marines. He began to perform on the violin, which led to him touring. John eventually began to conduct theater orchestras, including Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore on Broadway.

In February 1879, he met Jane van Middlesworth Bellis during Pinafore rehearsals. They were married on December 30, 1879. The couple had three children.

In 1880, John returned to Washington D.C., to assume leadership of the U.S. Marine Band. He led the band from 1880 to 1892. During that time, he conducted "The President's Own" any time the president needed music for an event - a Marine Band prerogative. While conducting that band, Sousa served under presidents Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison.

The first Sousa band

In 1892, promoter David Blakely approached Sousa, and persuaded him to resign and organize a civilian concert band. The first "Sousa's Band" concert was performed on September 26, 1892, at the Stillman Music Hall in Plainfield, New Jersey.

Sousa's first operetta, El Capitan, made its debut in 1895. It was his most famous operetta and has been in production somewhere ever since it was written. He wrote 10 operettas.

In 1896, while Sousa and his wife were in Europe on a vacation, they received word that his promoter had died. On the voyage home, John was inspired to write "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

Sousa's band continued to tour widely, and in 1900, they represented the United States at the Paris Exposition before touring Europe. They toured Europe successfuly three times, the first in 1900, the second in 1901, and the last in 1905. In 1910, Sousa organized a successful world tour.

Sousa joined the U.S. Naval Reserve at age 62 in 1917, during World War I, and was given the rank of lieutenant. Following the war, he continued to tour with his band. He fought for the causes of music education and composers' rights, even testifying before Congress in 1927 and 1928. Over the band's 40-year lifetime, they gave 15,200 concerts.

Conducting to the last

After conducting a rehearsal of the Ringgold Band in Reading, Pennsylvania, on March 6, 1932, John Philip Sousa died at the age of 77. The last piece he conducted was "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

He remains the best-known composer of band marches. He composed 135, the most famous being Stars and Stripes, the nation's official march.

Sousa was inducted into the Washington (D.C.) Area Music Hall of Fame, in 2002.

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John Philip Sousa
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We Shall Overcome -- John Philip Sousa, Jr. High School
... John Philip Sousa Junior High School National Historic Landmarks photograph The John Philip Sousa Junior High School, a National Historic Landmark, is associated with the struggle to desegregate schools in the nation's capitoJohn Philip Sousa Junior High School National Historic Landmarks photograph The John Philip Sousa Junior High School, a National Historic Landmark, is associated with the struggle to desegregate schools in the nation's capitoJohn Philip Sousa Junior High School, a National Historic Landmark, is associated with the struggle to desegregate schools in the nation's capitol.

John Philip Sousa
... Philip Sousa, America's "March King" Born: November 6, 1854 Died: March 6, 1932 John Philip Sousa was an American entertainer and composer. He is best remembered for his marches, his band, and his patriotism. Known as the "MaJohn Philip Sousa was an American entertainer and composer. He is best remembered for his marches, his band, and his patriotism. Known as the "March King,"

2012-02-04T13:53:00.000-06:00

United States Marine Corps
History of Medal of Honor

The Medal of Honor is the highest award for bravery that can be given to any individual in the United States. In judging men for receipt of the medal, each service has established its own regulations. The deed must be proved by incontestable evidence of at least two eyewitnesses; it must be so outstanding that it clearly distinguishes the recipient's gallantry beyond the call of duty from lesser forms of bravery; it must involve the risk of his life; and it must be the type of deed which, if he had not done it, would not subject him to any justified criticism.

The idea for the Medal of Honor was born during the Civil War as men fought gallantly and oftentimes displayed great heroism. George Washington originated the Purple Heart in 1782 to honor brave soldiers, sailors and Marines. From that time until the Civil War, Certificates of Merit and a "brevet" system of promotions were used as military awards. The first military decoration formally authorized by the American Government as a badge of valor was the Medal of Honor for enlisted men of the Navy and Marine Corps. It was authorized by Congress, and approved by President Abraham Lincoln on 21 December 1861. The medal for the Army and Voluntary Forces was authorized on 12 July 1862.

The medal is awarded "in the name of the Congress of the United States" and for this reason, it is often called the Congressional Medal of Honor. It is only on rare occasions, however, that Congress awards special Medals of Honor. An Executive Order, signed by President Theodore Roosevelt on 20 September 1905, directed that ceremonies of award "will always be made with formal and impressive ceremonial" and that the recipient "will, when practicable, be ordered to Washington, D.C., and the presentation will be made by the President, as Commander in Chief, or by such representative as the President may designate."

Since 1862, 296 Marines have been awarded the Medal of Honor. The first recipient was Corporal John F. Mackie, who during the attack on Fort Darling at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia, "fearlessly maintained his musket fire against the rifle pits on shore, and when ordered to fill vacancies at guns caused by men wounded and killed in action, manned the weapon with skill and courage." Sixteen other enlisted Marines were awarded the medal during the Civil War. Another 63 Marines would receive the Medal of Honor in the 1871 Korean Campaign, the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection and the Boxer Rebellion. Marine and Navy officers were first declared eligible for the award in 1913, and in the next year nine medals were awarded to officers for the landing at Vera Cruz, Mexico. The "Banana Wars" saw a total of another 13 medals conferred on enlisted Marines and officers. Only two Marines, Major General Smedley D. Butler and Sergeant Major Daniel Daly were awarded Medals of Honor for two separate actions: Vera Cruz (1914) and Haiti (1915) for Butler, and Peking (1900) and Haiti (1915) for Daly. Although only 7 Marines received the medal for actions during World War I, 82 medals were given to Marines during World War II, 42 were awarded for the Korean War, and another 57 for the Vietnam War. The most recent Medal of Honor awarded to a Marine was for gallantry in action during Operation Enduring Freedom.

There have been four major variations in the Navy Medal of Honor since its inception, the most distinctive change being the "Tiffany Cross" which was instituted in early 1919 and used until the current medal was re-established in 1942. The Navy Medal of Honor is made of bronze, suspended by an anchor from a bright blue ribbon, and is worn about the neck. The ribbon is spangled with a cluster of 13 white stars representing the original States. Each ray of the five pointed star contains sprays of laurel and oak and is tipped with a trefoil. Standing in bas-relief, circled by 34 stars representing the 34 states in 1861, is Minerva who personifies the Union. She holds in her left hand the fasces, an ax bound in staves of wood, which is the ancient Roman symbol of authority. With the shield in her right hand, she repulses the serpents held by the crouching figure of Discord. The reverse of the medal is left blank, allowing for the engraving of the recipient's name and the date and place of his deed.

2012-01-23T14:11:00.000-06:00

Pvt. John Joseph Kelly, USMC
Army and Navy Medals of Honor

John Joseph Kelly (June 24, 1898 - November 20, 1957) was a United States Marine who was awarded both the Army and Navy Medals of Honor for his heroic actions on October 13, 1918 at the Battle of Blanc Mont Ridge, France during World War I. He was the last of the 19 two-time Medal of Honor recipients to have been alive.

Biography

Kelly was born in Chicago, Illinois on June 24, 1898. He enlisted as a private in the United States Marine Corps on May 15, 1917 in Port Royal, South Carolina. On September 5, 1917, he joined the 7th Company, 6th Regiment, at Quantico, Virginia, and on September 12, 1917, he was transferred to the 78th Company. On January 19, 1918, his regiment embarked from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the USS Henderson and arrived at St. Nazaire, France on February 5, 1918.

Private Kelly participated in engagements at Château-Thierry, St. Mihiel, Blanc Mont and the Meuse-Argonne offensive. In the desperate fighting at Blanc Mont Ridge he ran "100 yards in advance of the front line and attacked an enemy machine-gun nest", for which he was awarded both the Army and Navy Medals of Honor.

He also participated in the march to the Rhine River and in the occupation of the Coblenz Bridgehead, from November 17, to December 12, 1918. Pvt Kelly was honorably discharged, with character "Excellent" at the Marine Barracks, Quantico, Virginia on August 14, 1919.

The circumstances of Pvt. Kelly's Medal of Honor decoration were unique. It was pinned on his chest by General John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief, American Expeditionary Force, while Pvt Kelly was with the Army of Occupation. With him in line, waiting for other decorations were U.S. Army Major Generals Dickman, Muir, Haan and Hines. His foreign decorations include the French Croix de guerre with Bronze Star; French Croix de guerre with Palm; Montenegrin Silver Medal for bravery; the French Médaille militaire; and the Italian Croce al Merito di Guerra.

At the time of his death in November 20, 1957, his address was listed as Chicago, Illinois and he is buried at All Saints Cemetery, Des Plaines, Illinois.

Medal of Honor citation

Army citation

Kelly, John Joseph
Private, 78th Company
G.O. War Department No. 16, page 7, 1919

Private Kelly ran through our barrage 100 yards in advance of the front line and attacked an enemy machine- gun nest, killing the gunner with a grenade, shooting another member of the crew with his pistol, and returning through the barrage with eight prisoners.

Navy citation
Kelly, John Joseph
Private, U.S. Marine Corps
78th Company, 6th Regiment

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy at BLANC MONT RIDGE, France, October 3, 1918. Private Kelly ran through our own barrage one hundred yards in advance of the front line and attacked an enemy machine-gun nest, killing the gunner with a grenade, shooting another member of the crew with his pistol and returned through the barrage with eight prisoners.

2012-01-21T12:51:00.000-06:00

A Few Good Men deployed
around the world

The Marines have landed and the situation is well in hand

2d Battalion, 6th Marines

The formation of the Second Battalion was included in the decision to form the Sixth Regiment of Marines in order to send a brigade of Marines to France. The Battalion was activated on July 11, 1917 at a newly purchased Navy Department training site at Quantico, Virginia. Shortly after formation, the Second Battalion encountered a serious shortage of Junior Officers. To fill the complement, new officers were drawn from old non-commissioned officers, former members of the Marine Corps and the National Guard, and graduates of military academies with little combat experience.

The Second Battalion consisted of the 78th, 79th, 80th, and 96th companies and was commanded by Major Thomas H. Holcomb who relieved an ailing LtCol Harry Lee. The Company Commanders were for the most part Captains who had served approximately ten years in the Marine Corps, and whose experience and dedication helped develop confidence and initiative in the younger officers. A small nucleus of non-commissioned officers and experienced men were distributed judiciously throughout the Second Battalion to form the backbone of the companies.

By October 1917, the Second Battalion was well equipped and trained for war.It was not until January 19, 1918, that the Second Battalion finally left for League Island, Philadelphia, preparatory for embarking for France as part of the 4th Brigade, American Expeditionary Force. An uneventful crossing of the Atlantic followed, and the Second Battalion landed at San Nazaire on February 8. They immediately entrained for Dambalin, Vosges in France arriving there on February 10, and commenced intense training for trench warfare. On March 17, 1918, the Second Battalion moved to Camp Massa where it remained in reserve until relieving the Third Battalion, Sixth Regiment on March 26. The Second Battalion's first combat action was repelling light attacks, such as trench raids, and conducting constant patrols.

The Second Battalion took part in the defense of Paris across the Chateau-Thierry-Paris road later that year. On June 6, 1918, it was ordered into the attack at Belleau Wood, west of Chateau -Thierry, the offensive that brought honor and commendation to the Fourth Marine Brigade of the American Expeditionary Force. One attack by the Second Battalion was made across six hundred yards of open ground under intense artillery and machine gun fire. In recognition of the brilliant courage, the vigor, spirit and tenacity of the Marines of the Fourth Brigade who over came all hardships and losses and captured the village of Bouresches and Belleau Wood in June 1918, the French renamed the wood the Bois de la Brigade de Marine. Additionally the Fifth and Sixth Marines were cited in the Orders of the French Army, and awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm.

The Second Battalion then took part in battles in the Soissons-Chateau-Thierry sector.During severe fighting, losses were heavy and only three company officers remained when the Battalion was relieved on July 19, 1918. For their remarkable ardor and tenacity in rolling back the enemy, the Fifth and Sixth Marines received their second honor when cited in the Orders of the French Army Corps and awarded the Gilt Star to the Croix de Guerre.

During August, the battalion rested and reorganized, clothing was reissued and replacements assigned. On September 2, 1918, the Second Battalion received orders to march into the St. Mihiel sector as part of the first wholly American grand offensive.The advance on Limey commenced September 12, 1918. In October, the Second Battalion took part in operations in the Champagne sector where they were awarded their third citation in the Orders of the French Army, receiving their second Palm for the Croix de Guerre and the French Fourragere. The Second Battalion, to this day, proudly displays the French Fourragere as a special honor to the brave Marines who fought in these campaigns and earned this honor through blood and sacrifice.

During this campaign two Marines from second Battalion earned Medals of Honor. Private John Joseph Kelly, 78th Company, born June 24, 1898, Chicago, Illinois and Corporal John Henry Pruitt, 78th Company, born October 4, 1896, Faderville, Arkansas, were awarded both the Army and the Navy Medals of Honor for their actions at Blanc Mont Ridge, France on October 3, 1918.Gunnery Sergeant Fred W. Stockman, 96th Company, born March 16, 1881, Detroit, Michigan was the third Marine of the Second Battalion to be awarded the Medal of Honor during World War I.

On the 19th of October, the Second Battalion departed for the Aisne River region and took part in the Meuse-Argonne operations from the 1st of November to the 11th. The Second Battalion then participated in the operations at Toulon-Troyon and Marabache. During November 1918, the battalion participated in the march to the Rhine River, crossing the Rhine on the 13th of December, were it took up positions for the occupation.

The Second Battalion left Germany on July 19, 1919 and returned to Quantico, Virginia on the 9th of August after taking part in the Second Division Parade in New York which was reviewed by Major General John A. Lejeune, Division Commander. On August 20, 1919, the Second Battalion was deactivated for nearly three years.

On June 12, 1922, the Second Battalion was reactivated at Quantico, Virginia. During June and July it participated in maneuvers at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and was attached to the Marine Corps Expeditionary Force. The Sixth Regiment saw action in the Dominican Republic and Cuba in 1924. Again deactivated on October 31, 1924, the Second Battalion remained deactivated until March 26, 1927. The Battalion was reorganized at Marine Barracks, Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and destined to join the Third Brigade on expeditionary duty in China. The Second Battalion sailed from San Diego on April 17, 1927, and moved into Tientsin, China on the 6th of June. After a year and a half of guard duty, the Second Battalion relocated in January 1929 to San Diego, California and was once again deactivated on March 31, 1929.

With the establishment of the Fleet Marine Force in 1934, the Second Battalion, 6th Marines was reactivated on December 1, 1934 and located in San Diego, California. From 1934 to 1937 the Battalion participated in fleet maneuvers in the Central Pacific. In 1937, conditions in China led to a request by the Commander in Chief of the Asiatic Fleet that additional Marines be sent to China to augment forces there engaged in protecting the lives and property of Americans. The Second Battalion deployed to Shanghai, China during August and September 1937 and was assigned to the 2nd Marine Brigade. After trying circumstances in China, the battalion was returned to San Diego during February through April 1938.

The Second Battalion, 6th Marines was part of the primary infantry unit for Second Brigade when the Brigade was redesignated the Second Marine Division on February 1, 1941. During May through July 1941, the Second Battalion was reassigned to the First Provisional Marine Brigade and deployed to garrison Reykjavik, Iceland against German invasion. Leaving there in March 1942, the Battalion returned to San Diego, California and was reassigned to the Second Marine Division. During the fall of 1942, the Second Battalion sailed to Wellington, New Zealand and commenced advanced combat training. On January 4, 1942, the Battalion landed on Guadalcanal where it played an important part in the final days of that campaign. The experience gained on Guadalcanal served the Battalion well when it landed with the Second Marine Division on bloody Tarawa, November 21, 1943. Heavy casualties resulted from the fierce fighting that took place. Along with the other units of the Division, the Second Battalion received the Presidential Unit Citation, the nation's highest unit award, for the Tarawa Operation.

On June 15, 1944, the Second Battalion landed with the Sixth Marines on Saipan in the Marianas Islands. Positioned on the left of the Division Beaches, the Second Battalion fought toward Garapan in almost continuous heavy action against Japanese tank-infantry forces. For Second Battalion, Sixth Marines, the fight continued until they reached the northern end of Saipan, and the island was secure. A short rehabilitation and training period occurred on Saipan. Then on 25th of July, Second Battalion, Sixth Marines landed with the Sixth Marines on Tinian. Private First Class Robert Lee Wilson, born May 24, 1921, in Centralia, Illinois was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on Tinian, August 4, 1944.

As part of the new Tenth Army's floating reserve, the Second Battalion participated in diversionary feints off the southeastern coast of the island Okinawa April 1 - 2, 1945. The Battalion was not ordered ashore on Okinawa and returned to its base on Saipan where it was stationed when victory was announced. Following V-J Day, the Second Battalion deployed to Nagasaki, Japan in September 1945 and participated in the occupation of Japan until July 1946.

A series of reassignments and relocations followed the war. In July and August 1946, the second Battalion relocated to Camp Pendleton, California and was reassigned to the Third Marine Brigade in September. After reassignment to the First Marine Division in July 1947, the battalion was deactivated on October 1, 1947. On October 17, 1949, Second Battalion, Sixth Marines was reactivated at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and returned to the Second Marine Division. Again deactivated August 6, 1950, the Battalion was reactivated 20 days later and once again became a part of the Second Division. Since March 1951 the Battalion has deployed at various times as Battalion Landing Team 2/6 in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. The battalion participated in landings in Lebanon in October 1953, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, October through December 1962.

The Battalion participated in numerous training exercises throughout the 1970's and into the 1980's. Second Battalion, 6th Marines participated as part of the Multinational Peace-Keeping Force in Lebanon from February through June 1983. The Battalion returned to Beirut as relief for First Battalion, Eighth Marines after the infamous bombing of the Marine Barracks on October 23, 1983.

On March 3, 1989, Second Battalion, 6th Marines was deactivated and placed into cadre status during a ceremony conducted on the Camp Geiger Parade Field. On July 23, 1994, Second Battalion, 6th Marines was reactivated at Cuzco Wells, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This was accomplished by redesignating 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines as 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines. This occurred while the Battalion was deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for Operation Sea Signal, the interdiction, security, and processing of Haitian migrants. Fox Company, reinforced, remained through August 1994, providing security for Haitian migrants being transported to and from the migrant holding camps. In September 1994 the battalion's main force returned to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to provide security for Cuban migrants. In October 1994, the battalion was relieved of its humanitarian duties and returned to Camp Lejeune.

In September 1995, during a Landing Force Sixth Fleet deployment to the Mediterranean, Battalion Landing Team 2/6 was called upon to support United Nations and NATO Peace Keeping operations in the Former Yugoslavia. From September 1995 to February 1996, Battalion Landing Team 2/6 served as the tactical reserve for Operation Joint Endeavor Implementation Forces (IFOR) and at various times as the stand-by TRAP force for Operation Deny Flight. For its exceptional performance of these duties during this period, Battalion Landing Team received the Joint Meritorious Unit citation.

2d Battalion, 6th Marines, was the Ground Combat Element (GCE) for the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit's LF6F 2-02 deployment, forming the nucleus for all of the MEU's ground combat forces that include attached tank and light armored vehicles, artillery, amphibious vehicles, engineers, and reconnaissance assets. The primary mission of the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines, as the 22nd MEU's Ground Combat Element, is to provide the unit with its main combat punch. Attachments bring the battalion's strength up to approximately 1,100 Marines and sailors, and include combat engineers, light armored vehicles, tanks, artillery, and amphibious assault vehicles.

From April to May 2000, Echo company and elements of H&S (STA) of the Battalion deployed to Kosovo where they took part in Operation Dynamic Response.

The entire battalion deployed and took part in Operation Iraqi Freedom from February 2003 to May 2003.

From August 2003 to April 2004, the battalion deployed to Okinawa, Japan for a UDP. The Second Battalion, 6th Marines became a part of 4th Marines.

Starting in August 2004, the entire battalion became part of the 4th MEB and acted as the Anti Terrorism Force for the US. Company G deployed in September 2004 to Baghdad, Iraq, where its mission included providing security to U.S. government buildings in the international zone, including portions of the U.S. Embassy. The unit returned to MCB Camp Lejeune on March 15, 2005.

2012-01-12T15:24:00.001-06:00

Mission is never impossible
for United States Marines

President Harry S. Truman once said; "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

The heat go too hot for Truman and he was forced to apologize after he made a slanderous remark about the Marine Corps - the greatest fighting force the world has ever known.

Sept. 6, 1950 -- President Truman apologizes to the Marine Corps for an "unfortunate choice of language" in a letter to a Republican congressman seeking support for the Marines. In the letter Truman wrote that Marines are the Navy's police force and would remain so "as long as I am President. They have a propaganda machine that is almost equal to Stalin's." In his apology, he praises the Marine Corps history of bravery and dedication. He says he is sure "the Marine Corps itself does not indulge in such propaganda."

The Marine Corps serves as a versatile combat element, and is adapted to a wide variety of combat operations. The Marine Corps was initially composed of infantry combat forces serving aboard naval vessels, responsible for security of the ship, its captain and officers, offensive and defensive combat during boarding actions, by acting as sharpshooters, and carrying out amphibious assaults. The Marines fully developed and used the tactics of amphibious assault in World War II, most notably in the Pacific Island Campaign.

Since its creation in 1775, the Corps’ role has expanded significantly. The Marines have a unique mission statement, and, alone among the branches of the U.S. armed forces, “shall, at any time, be liable to do duty in the forts and garrisons of the United States, on the seacoast, or any other duty on shore, as the President, at his discretion, shall direct.” In this special capacity, charged with carrying out duties given to them directly by the President of the United States, the Marine Corps serves as an all-purpose, fast-response task force, capable of quick action in areas requiring emergency intervention.

The Marine Corps possesses organic ground and air combat elements, and relies upon the US Navy to provide sea combat elements to fulfill its mission as “America’s 9-1-1 Force”. Ground combat elements are largely contained in three Marine Expeditionary Forces, or “MEF’s”. The 1st MEF is based out of Camp Pendleton, California, the 2nd out of Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, while the third is based on Okinawa, Japan. Within the MEF’s are the individual Marine Divisions (MARDIVS) and Force Service Support Groups (FSSG’s).Force Reconnaissance companies are composed of Marines specially trained in covert insertion, reconnaissance, and surveillance tactics, and some have even received special operations training. The “Recon Marine’s” basic mission is to scout out the enemy and report what they find.

Air combat elements are similarly grouped in the first, second and third Marine Aircraft Wings (MAW’s).

Marine tactics and doctrine tends to emphasize aggressiveness and the offensive, compared to Army tactics for similar units. The Marines have been central in developing groundbreaking tactics for maneuver warfare; they can be credited with the development of helicopter insertion doctrine and modern amphibious assault.

The Marines also maintain an operational and training culture dedicated to emphasizing the infantry combat abilities of every Marine. All Marines receive training first and foremost as basic riflemen, and thus the Marine Corps at heart functions as an infantry corps. The Marine Corps is famous for the saying “Every Marine a rifleman.”

While the Marine Corps does not necessarily fill unique combat roles, only when combined do the US Army, Navy, and US Air Force overlap every area that the Marine Corps covers. As a force, the Marines consistently use all essential elements of combat (air, ground, sea) together. While the creation of joint commands under the Goldwater-Nichols Act has improved interservice coordination between the larger services, the Marine Corps’ ability to permanently maintain integrated multi-element task forces under a single command provides a special ability to respond to flexibility and urgency requirements.

The Marines argue that they do not and should not take the place of the other services, any more than an ambulance takes the place of a hospital. Nonetheless, when a pressing emergency develops, the Marines essentially act as a stopgap, to get into and hold an area until the larger machinery can be mobilized. The opinions of other military men and politicians have, at times, differed, and President Harry S. Truman considered abolishing the Corps as part of the 1948 reorganization of the military. As Truman said, “The only propaganda machine that rivals that of Stalin is that of the United States Marine Corps.” Truman, a former U.S. Army artillery captain, felt that the Marines were useless, despite their many successes in World War II and the Korean War.

2012-01-07T07:20:00.000-06:00

United States Marine Corps
Women Marines

The United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve (USMCWR), established in 1942 as a part of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, was a Reserve unit which provided women for shore duty in the Marine Corps to take over jobs so men could be released for combat duty.

Historical context - women in the Marine Corps

In 1918, the Secretary of the Navy allowed women to enlist for clerical duty in the Marine Corps. Officially, Opha Mae Johnson is credited as the first woman Marine. Johnson enlisted for service on August 13, 1918; during that year some 300 women first entered the Marine Corps to take over stateside clerical duties from battle-ready Marines who were needed overseas.

Beginnings; World War II service

The Marine Corps Women's Reserve was established in February 1943. The first director of the Marine Corps Women's Reserve was Mrs. Ruth Cheney Streeter from Morristown, New Jersey. By the end of World War II, 85 percent of the enlisted personnel assigned to Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps were women.

The first group of women officers was given direct commissions based on ability and civilian expertise. These women were given no formal indoctrination or schooling, but went on active duty immediately. Women Marines were assigned to over 200 different jobs, among them radio operator, photographer, parachute rigger, driver, aerial gunnery instructor, cook, baker, quartermaster, control tower operator, motion picture operator, auto mechanic, telegraph operator, cryptographer, laundry operator, post exchange manager, stenographer, and agriculturist.

After the war; Retention for active duty

On June 7, 1946, Commandant of the Marine Corps General Alexander A. Vandegrift approved the retention of a small number of women on active duty. They would serve as a trained nucleus for possible mobilization emergencies. The demobilization of the Marine Corps Women's Reserve, 17,640 enlisted and 820 officers, was to be completed by September 1, 1946. Of the 20,000 women who joined the Marine Corps during World War II, only 1,000 remained in the Marine Corps Women's Reserve by July 1, 1946.

June 12, 1948, the United States Congress passed the Women's Armed Services Integration Act and made women a permanent part of the regular Marine Corps.

In 1950, the Women Reserves were mobilized for the Korean War and 2,787 women were called to active duty. By the height of the Vietnam War, there were about 2,700 women Marines served both stateside and overseas. By 1975, the Corps approved the assignment of women to all occupational fields except infantry, artillery, armor and pilot/air crew. Over 1,000 women Marines were deployed in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990-1991.

The women Marines, also known to us old timers as "(BAM's) Broad-Ass-Marines" have continued to serve the Corps at most Marine Corps Bases and have contributed much in combat zones. The Marine Corps first found a "Few good Men" and we are proud to say the Corps found a "Few good Women."

2012-01-01T09:43:00.003-06:00

The Few, The Proud,
The Marines

The United States Marines have been called many different names over the 237 years, but only one is not acceptable. We gladly accept the simple names <> Marine, former Marine, retired Marine, but never an ex-Marine. After we earned the Marine Corps emblem when we successfully completed boot-camp, we became a Marine for life. You've heard the saying; Once a Marine, always a Marine. Here are other terms we have been labeled with.

Leatherneck: The nickname Leatherneck has become a universal moniker for a U.S. Marine. The term originated from the wide and stiff leather neck-piece that was part of the Marine Corps uniform from 1798 until 1872. This leather collar, called The Stock, was roughly four inches high and had two purposes. In combat, it protected the neck and jugular vein from cutlasses slashes. On parade, it kept a Marine's head erect. The term is so widespread that it has become the name of the Marine Corps Association monthly magazine, LEATHERNECK.

Gyrene: Around 1900, members of the U.S. Navy began using Gyrene as a jocular derogatory reference to U.S. Marines. Instead of being insulted, the Marines loved it. The term became common by World War I and has been extensively used since that time.

Jarhead: For roughly 50 years, sailors had little luck in their effort to insult Marines by calling them Gyrenes. So, during World War II sailors began referring to Marines as Jarheads. Presumably the high collar on the Marine Dress Blues uniform made a Marine's head look like it was sticking out of the top of a Mason jar. Marines were not insulted. Instead, they embraced the new moniker as a term of utmost respect.

Devil Dogs: The German Army coined this term of respect for U.S. Marines during World War I. In the summer of 1918 the German Army was driving toward Paris. The French Army was in full retreat. In a desperate effort to save Paris, the newly arrived U.S. Marines were thrown into the breach. In June 1918, in bitter fighting lasting for weeks, Marines repeatedly repulsed the Germans in Belleau Wood. The German drive toward Paris sputtered, fizzled, and died. Then the Marines attacked and swept the Germans back out of Belleau Wood. Paris had been saved. The tide of war had turned. Five months later Germany would be forced to accept an armistice. The battle tenacity and fury of the U.S. Marines had stunned the Germans. In their official reports they called the Marines "teufel hunden," meaning Devil Dogs, the ferocious mountain dogs of Bavarian folklore.

Soldiers of the Sea: A traditional and functional term for Marines, dating back to the British in the 1600's

2011-12-25T14:59:00.001-06:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR - 2012

The first New Year's Eve celebration in America was held in 1904. The New York Times newspaper had opened their new headquarters on Longacre Square (the city's second tallest building), and persuaded the city to rename the triangular "square" surrounding it for the newspaper. The newspaper's owner, Adolph Ochs, decided to celebrate the move with a midnight fireworks show on the building for New Year's Eve. Close to 200,000 attended the event, displacing celebrations held at Trinity Church. However, Adolph wanted a bigger spectacular at the building to draw more attention to the square. In 1907, an iron and wood was constructed and was lit with one hundred 25-watt bulbs, weighed 700 pounds and measured 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter. At first, it dropped 1 second after midnight. Even after the Times moved its headquarters to 229 W. 43rd St., the celebration continued.

The Ball received its first upgrade in 1920, replaced by one made of Iron, now only weighing 400 pounds, it would then be replaced by an 150 pounds aluminum ball in 1955. During World War II, the descending of the Ball was stopped due to wartime lighting restrictions in case of enemy attack. Celebrants observed a moment of silence at midnight, followed by chimes. From 1981 to 1988, the Ball would be decorated in honor of the I Love New York campaign, with red bulbs and a green stem to give it the appearance of an apple. The original white bulbs would return in 1989, but replaced for 1991 with red, white, and blue bulbs to salute the troops of Operation Desert Shield.

It was revamped again in 1995, adding rhinestone, and a computerized lighting system featuring strobe lights. This ball would be used for the remainder of the decade. For the new millennium, an entirely new ball would debut. Weighing 1,070 pounds and measuring 6 feet in diameter, it would be covered with 504 crystal triangles (provided by Waterford Crystal), illuminated externally with 168 halogen light bulbs and internally with 432 light bulbs of clear, red, blue, green and yellow colors, along with strobe lights and spinning mirrors. Many of the triangles are inscribed with messages of a certain theme, such as "Hope for Fellowship," "Hope for Wisdom," "Hope for Unity," "Hope for Courage," "Hope for Healing," and "Hope for Abundance. On December 31, 2006, this ball was droppd for the last time.

In honor of the Ball Drop's 100th anniversary, another new ball debuted for 2008. While still manufactured by Waterford Crystal (and weighing 1,212 pounds, it now uses LED lighting provided by Philips (which can produce over 16.7 million colors, and programmed for more advanced patterns and effects, designed by local firm Focus Lighting) instead of halogen bulbs. The ball features 9,567 energy-efficient bulbs that consume the same amount of electricity as only ten toasters. For 2009, the design was maintained as a icosahedral geodesic sphere, but doubled in size to 12 feet (3.7 m) in diameter with a weight of 11,875 pounds. To accommodate the new ball (which is also now displayed year-round), the flagpole atop of One Times Square was rebuilt and enlarged, now rising 475 feet above Times Square.

Sound effects during the countdown debuted in 1998. Every year had different sound effects except for 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 ball drops, which used the same exact sounds. The current clock-ticking debuted in 2003 and has been used since then for every single countdown.

A History of New Years

In 46 B.C.E. the Roman emperor Julius Caesar first established January 1 as New Year's day. Janus was the Roman god of doors and gates, and had two faces, one looking forward and one back. Caesar felt that the month named after this god ("January") would be the appropriate "door" to the year. Caesar celebrated the first January 1 New Year by ordering the violent routing of revolutionary Jewish forces in the Galilee. Eyewitnesses say blood flowed in the streets. In later years, Roman pagans observed the New Year by engaging in drunken orgies - a ritual they believed constituted a personal re-enacting of the chaotic world that existed before the cosmos was ordered by the gods.

As Christianity spread, pagan holidays were either incorporated into the Christian calendar or abandoned altogether. By the early medieval period most of Christian Europe regarded Annunciation Day (March 25) as the beginning of the year. (According to Catholic tradition, Annunciation Day commemorates the angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary that she would be impregnated by God and conceive a son to be called Jesus.)

After William the Conqueror (AKA "William the Bastard" and "William of Normandy") became King of England on December 25, 1066, he decreed that the English return to the date established by the Roman pagans, January 1. This move ensured that the commemoration of Jesus' birthday (December 25) would align with William's coronation, and the commemoration of Jesus' circumcision (January 1) would start the new year - thus rooting the English and Christian calendars and his own Coronation). William's innovation was eventually rejected, and England rejoined the rest of the Christian world and returned to celebrating New Years Day on March 25.

About five hundred years later, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII (AKA "Ugo Boncompagni", 1502-1585) abandoned the traditional Julian calendar. By the Julian reckoning, the solar year comprised 365.25 days, and the intercalation of a "leap day" every four years was intended to maintain correspondence between the calendar and the seasons. Really, however there was a slight inaccuracy in the Julian measurement (the solar year is actually 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds = 365.2422 days). This slight inaccuracy caused the Julian calendar to slip behind the seasons about one day per century. Although this regression had amounted to 14 days by Pope Gregory's time, he based his reform on restoration of the vernal equinox, then falling on March 11, to the date had 1,257 years earlier when Council of Nicaea was convened (March 21, 325 C.E.). Pope Gregory made the correction by advancing the calendar 10 days. The change was made the day after October 4, 1582, and that following day was established as October 15, 1582. The Gregorian calendar differs from the Julian in three ways: (1) No century year is a leap year unless it is exactly divisible by 400 (e.g., 1600, 2000, etc.); (2) Years divisible by 4000 are common (not leap) years; and (3) once again the New Year would begin with the date set by the early pagans, the first day of the month of Janus - January 1.

On New Years Day 1577 Pope Gregory XIII decreed that all Roman Jews, under pain of death, must listen attentively to the compulsory Catholic conversion sermon given in Roman synagogues after Friday night services. On New Years Day 1578 Gregory signed into law a tax forcing Jews to pay for the support of a "House of Conversion" to convert Jews to Christianity. On New Years 1581 Gregory ordered his troops to confiscate all sacred literature from the Roman Jewish community. Thousands of Jews were murdered in the campaign.

Throughout the medieval and post-medieval periods, January 1 - supposedly the day on which Jesus' circumcision initiated the reign of Christianity and the death of Judaism - was reserved for anti-Jewish activities: synagogue and book burnings, public tortures, and simple murder.

The Israeli term for New Year's night celebrations, "Sylvester," was the name of the "Saint" and Roman Pope who reigned during the Council of Nicaea (325 C.E.). The year before the Council of Nicaea convened, Sylvester convinced Constantine to prohibit Jews from living in Jerusalem. At the Council of Nicaea, Sylvester arranged for the passage of a host of viciously anti-Semitic legislation. All Catholic "Saints" are awarded a day on which Christians celebrate and pay tribute to that Saint's memory. December 31 is Saint Sylvester Day - hence celebrations on the night of December 31 are dedicated to Sylvester's memory.

2011-12-10T09:24:00.003-06:00

Christmas truce of 1914
World War I

It will not happen in the Alfangain War of 2011

Christmas truce was a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires that took place along the Western Front around Christmas of 1914, during the First World War. Through the week leading up to Christmas, parties of German and British soldiers began to exchange seasonal greetings and songs between their trenches; on occasion, the tension was reduced to the point that individuals would walk across to talk to their opposite numbers bearing gifts. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, many soldiers from both sides - as well as, to a lesser degree, from French units - independently ventured into "No man's land", where they mingled, exchanging food and souvenirs. As well as joint burial ceremonies, several meetings ended in carol-singing. Troops from both sides had also been so friendly as to play games of football with one another.

The truce is seen as a symbolic moment of peace and humanity amidst one of the most violent events of modern history. It was not ubiquitous, however; in some regions of the front, fighting continued throughout the day, whilst in others, little more than an arrangement to recover bodies was made. The following year, a few units again arranged ceasefires with their opponents over Christmas, but to nothing like the widespread extent seen in 1914; this was, in part, due to strongly worded orders from the high commands of both sides prohibiting such fraternisation.

The truces were not unique to the Christmas period, and reflected a growing mood of "live and let live", where infantry units in close proximity to each other would stop overtly aggressive behaviour, and often engage in small-scale fraternisation, engaging in conversation or bartering for cigarettes. In some sectors, there would be occasional ceasefires to go between the lines and recover wounded or dead soldiers, whilst in others, there would be a tacit agreement not to shoot while men rested, exercised, or worked in full view of the enemy. However, the Christmas truces were particularly significant due to the number of men involved and the level of their participation - even in very peaceful sectors, dozens of men openly congregating in daylight was remarkable.

Background

The first months of World War I had seen an initial German attack through Belgium into France, which had been repulsed outside Paris by French and British troops at the Battle of the Marne in early September 1914. The Germans fell back to the Aisne valley, where they prepared defensive positions. In the subsequent Battle of the Aisne, the Allied forces were unable to push through the German line, and the fighting quickly degenerated into a static stalemate; neither side was willing to give ground, and both started to develop fortified systems of trenches. To the north, on the right of the German army, there had been no defined front line, and both sides quickly began to try to use this gap to outflank one another; in the ensuing "Race to the Sea", the two sides repeatedly clashed, each trying to push forward and threaten the end of the other's line. After several months of fighting, during which the British forces were withdrawn from the Aisne and sent north into Flanders, the northern flank had developed into a similar stalemate. By November, there was a continuous front line running from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier, occupied on both sides by armies in prepared defensive positions.

The approach to Christmas

In the lead up to Christmas 1914, there were several peace initiatives. The Open Christmas Letter was a public message for peace addressed "To the Women of Germany and Austria", signed by a group of 101 British women suffragists at the end of 1914 as the first Christmas of World War I approached. Pope Benedict XV, on 7 December 1914, had begged for an official truce between the warring governments. He asked "that the guns may fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang." This attempt was officially rebuffed.

Christmas 1914

Though there was no official truce, about 100,000 British and German troops were involved in unofficial cessations of fighting along the length of the Western Front. The first truce started on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1914, when German troops began decorating the area around their trenches in the region of Ypres, Belgium.

The Germans began by placing candles on their trenches and on Christmas trees, then continued the celebration by singing Christmas carols. The British responded by singing carols of their own. The two sides continued by shouting Christmas greetings to each other. Soon thereafter, there were excursions across No Man's Land, where small gifts were exchanged, such as food, tobacco and alcohol, and souvenirs such as buttons and hats. The artillery in the region fell silent that night. The truce also allowed a breathing spell where recently fallen soldiers could be brought back behind their lines by burial parties. Joint services were held. The fraternisation was not, however, without its risks; some soldiers were shot by opposing forces. In many sectors, the truce lasted through Christmas night, but it continued until New Year's Day in others.

Bruce Bairnsfather, who served throughout the war, wrote: "I wouldn't have missed that unique and weird Christmas Day for anything. ... I spotted a German officer, some sort of lieutenant I should think, and being a bit of a collector, I intimated to him that I had taken a fancy to some of his buttons. ... I brought out my wire clippers and, with a few deft snips, removed a couple of his buttons and put them in my pocket. I then gave him two of mine in exchange. ... The last I saw was one of my machine gunners, who was a bit of an amateur hairdresser in civil life, cutting the unnaturally long hair of a docile Boche, who was patiently kneeling on the ground whilst the automatic clippers crept up the back of his neck."

General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, commander of the British II Corps, was irate when he heard what was happening, and issued strict orders forbidding friendly communication with the opposing German troops.

Adolf Hitler, then a young corporal of the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry, was a notable opponent of the truce.

Later truces

In the following months, there were a few sporadic attempts at truces; a German unit attempted to leave their trenches under a flag of truce on Easter Sunday 1915, but were warned off by the British opposite them, and later in the year, in November, a Saxon unit briefly fraternised with a Liverpool battalion. Come December, there were explicit orders by the Allied commanders to forestall any repeat of the previous Christmas truce. Individual units were encouraged to mount raids and harass the enemy line, whilst communicating with the enemy was discouraged by artillery barrages along the front line throughout the day. The prohibition was not completely effective, however, and a small number of brief truces occurred.

An eyewitness account of one truce, by Llewelyn Wyn Griffith, recorded that after a night of exchanging carols, dawn on Christmas Day saw a "rush of men from both sides ... [and] a feverish exchange of souvenirs" before the men were quickly called back by their officers, with offers to hold a ceasefire for the day and to play a football match. It came to nothing, however; the brigade commander threatened repercussions for the lack of discipline, and insisted on a resumption of firing in the afternoon. Another member of Griffith's battalion, Bertie Felstead, later recalled that one man had produced a football, resulting in "a free-for-all; there could have been 50 on each side", before they were ordered back.

In an adjacent sector, a short truce to bury the dead between the lines led to official repercussions; a company commander, Sir Iain Colquhoun of the Scots Guards, was court-martialled for defying standing orders to the contrary. Whilst he was found guilty and officially reprimanded, this punishment was quickly annulled by General Haig, and Colquhoun remained in his position; the official leniency may perhaps have been because he was related to Herbert Asquith, the Prime Minister.

In the later years of the war, in December 1916 and 1917, German overtures to the British for truces were recorded without any success.[15] However, in some French sectors, singing and an exchange of thrown gifts was occasionally recorded, though these may simply have reflected a seasonal extension of the live-and-let-live approach common in the trenches.

Evidence of a Christmas 1916 truce, previously unknown to historians, has recently come to light. In a letter home, 23-year-old Private Ronald MacKinnon told of a remarkable event that occurred on December 25, 1916, when German and Canadian soldiers reached across the battle lines near Vimy Ridge to share Christmas greetings and trade presents. "Here we are again as the song says," the young soldier wrote. "I had quite a good Xmas considering I was in the front line. Xmas eve was pretty stiff, sentry-go up to the hips in mud of course. ... We had a truce on Xmas Day and our German friends were quite friendly. They came over to see us and we traded bully beef for cigars."

The passage ends with Pte. MacKinnon noting that, "Xmas was 'tray bon', which means very good." MacKinnon was killed shortly afterwards during the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

In the following years of the war, artillery bombardments were ordered on Christmas Eve to try to ensure that there were no further lulls in the combat. Troops were also rotated through various sectors of the front to prevent them from becoming overly familiar with the enemy. However, situations of deliberate dampening of hostilities also occurred. For example, artillery was fired at precise points, at precise times, to avoid enemy casualties by both sides.

French-German truce

Richard Schirrmann, who was in a German regiment holding a position on the Bernhardstein, one of the mountains of the Vosges, wrote an account of events in December 1915: "When the Christmas bells sounded in the villages of the Vosges behind the lines ..... something fantastically unmilitary occurred. German and French troops spontaneously made peace and ceased hostilities; they visited each other through disused trench tunnels, and exchanged wine, cognac and cigarettes for Westphalian black bread, biscuits and ham. This suited them so well that they remained good friends even after Christmas was over." He was separated from the French troops by a narrow No Man's Land and described the landscape as: "Strewn with shattered trees, the ground ploughed up by shellfire, a wilderness of earth, tree-roots and tattered uniforms." Military discipline was soon restored, but Schirrmann pondered over the incident, and whether "thoughtful young people of all countries could be provided with suitable meeting places where they could get to know each other." He went on to found the German Youth Hostel Association in 1919.

Public awareness

The events of the truce were not reported for a week, in an unofficial press embargo which was eventually broken by the New York Times on 31 December. The British papers quickly followed, printing numerous first-hand accounts from soldiers in the field, taken from letters home to their families, and editorials on "one of the greatest surprises of a surprising war". By 8 January pictures had made their way to the press, and both the Mirror and Sketch printed front-page photographs of British and German troops mingling and singing between the lines. The tone of the reporting was strongly positive, with the Times endorsing the "lack of malice" felt by both sides and the Mirror regretting that the "absurdity and the tragedy" would begin again.

Coverage in Germany was more muted, with some newspapers strongly criticising those who had taken part, and no pictures published. In France, meanwhile, the greater level of press censorship ensured that the only word that spread of the truce came from soldiers at the front or first-hand accounts told by wounded men in hospitals. The press was eventually forced to respond to the growing rumours by reprinting a government notice that fraternising with the enemy constituted treason, and in early January an official statement on the truce was published, claiming it had happened on restricted sectors of the British front, and amounted to little more than an exchange of songs which quickly degenerated into shooting.

In Petermann makes peace or the parable of German sacrifice, a 1933 play by national socialist writer and World War I veteran, Heinz Steguweit, a German soldier, accompanied by Christmas carols sung by his comrades, erects an illuminated Christmas tree between the trenches, but is shot dead by the enemy. Later, when the fellow soldiers find his body, they notice in horror that enemy snipers shot down every single Christmas light from the tree.

2011-12-07T09:39:00.003-06:00

Merry Christmas
Origins of celebrating Christmas

For members of the Christian faith, Christmas is the traditional day to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The actual date of Jesus' birth is not known, but December 25 became the date to commemorate the occasion. The date was chosen by the Romans to coincide with the winter solstice and other winter festivals as a way to convert the Romans to Christianity without forcing them to give up their pagan feasts.

Most young children think of Christmas with Santa Claus bringing presents to them on Christmas Eve - the night before Christmas.

Keeping your child believing in Santa can be a daunting task. Children are smart these days, and some of the old Santa tricks just don't get by them anymore. Many children are perpetually plagued with the question.

How did the idea for Santa Claus originate in America?

The American version of the Santa Claus figure received its inspiration and its name from the Dutch legend of Sinterklaas (a Dutch variant of the name Saint Nicholas).

Dutch colonists took this tradition with them to New Amsterdam (now New York City) in the American colonies in the 17th century.

As early as 1773 the name appeared in the American press as "St. A Claus," but it was the popular author Washington Irving who gave Americans their first detailed information about the Dutch version of Saint Nicholas. In his History of New York, published in 1809 under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, Irving described the arrival of the saint on horseback each Eve of Saint Nicholas.

This Dutch-American Saint Nick achieved his fully Americanized form in 1823 in the poem A Visit From Saint Nicholas more commonly known as "The Night Before Christmas" by writer Clement Clarke Moore. Moore included such details as the names of the reindeer; Santa Claus's laughs, winks, and nods; and the method by which Saint Nicholas, referred to as an elf, returns up the chimney. (Moore's phrase "lays his finger aside of his nose" was drawn directly from Irving's 1809 description.)

The American image of Santa Claus was further elaborated by illustrator Thomas Nast, who depicted a rotund Santa for Christmas issues of Harper's magazine from the 1860s to the 1880s. Nast added such details as Santa's workshop at the North Pole and Santa's list of the good and bad children of the world. In the first Nast illustration, Santa was delivering Christmas gifts to soldiers fighting in the Civil War. The cartoon, entitled "Santa Claus in Camp" appeared in Harper's Weekly on January 3, 1863.

A human-sized version of Santa Claus, rather than the elf of Moore's poem, was depicted in a series of illustrations created by Haddom Sundblom for Coca-Cola advertisements introduced in 1931. In modern versions of the Santa Claus legend, only his toyshop workers are elves.

An advertising writer named Robert May, invented Rudolph, the ninth reindeer, with a red and shiny nose, while working on a catalog for the Montgomery Ward Company in 1939.

In looking for the historical roots, one discovers that Santa Claus, as we know him, is a combination of many different legends and mythical creatures.

The basis for the Christian-era Santa Claus is Bishop Nicholas of Smyrna (Izmir), in what is now Turkey. Nicholas lived in the 4th century A.D. He was very rich, generous, and loving toward children. Often he gave joy to poor children by throwing gifts in through their windows.

The Orthodox Church later raised St. Nicholas, miracle worker, to a position of great esteem. It was in his honor that Russia's oldest church, for example, was built. For its part, the Roman Catholic Church honored Nicholas as one who helped children and the poor. St. Nicholas became the patron saint of children and seafarers. His name day is December 6th.

In the Protestant areas of central and northern Germany, St. Nicholas later became known as der Weinachtsmann. In England he came to be called Father Christmas. St. Nicholas made his way to the United States with Dutch immigrants, and began to be referred to as Santa Claus.

In North American poetry and illustrations, Santa Claus, in his white beard, red jacket and pompom-topped cap, would sally forth on the night before Christmas in his sleigh, pulled by eight reindeer, and climb down chimneys to leave his gifts in stockings children set out on the fireplace's mantelpiece.

Children naturally wanted to know where Santa Claus actually came from. Where did he live when he wasn't delivering presents? Those questions gave rise to the legend that Santa Claus lived at the North Pole, where his Christmas-gift workshop was also located.

Santa's sleigh and the reindeer story must be told

The Ninth Reindeer Rudolph, "the most famous reindeer of all," was born over a hundred years after his eight flying counterparts. The red-nosed wonder was the creation of Robert L. May, a copywriter at the Montgomery Ward Department Store. In 1939, May wrote a Christmas-themed story-poem to help bring holiday traffic into his store. Using a similar rhyme pattern to Moore's "'Twas the Night Before Christmas,"May told the story of Rudolph, a young reindeer who was teased by the other deer because of his large, glowing, red nose. But, When Christmas Eve turned foggy and Santa worried that he wouldn't be able to deliver gifts that night, the former outcast saved Christmas by leading the sleigh by the light of his red nose. Rudolph's message - that given the opportunity, a liability can be turned into an asset - proved popular. Montgomery Ward sold almost two and a half million copies of the story in 1939. When it was reissued in 1946, the book sold over three and half million copies. Several years later, one of May's friends, Johnny Marks, wrote a short song based on Rudolph's story (1949). It was recorded by Gene Autry and sold over two million copies. Since then, the story has been translated into 25 languages and been made into a television movie, narrated by Burl Ives, which has charmed audiences every year since 1964.

2011-11-29T09:00:00.000-06:00

Remember Pearl Harbor
70 years ago-12/07/41

The road to war between Japan and the United States began in the 1930s when differences over China drove the two nations apart. In 1931 Japan conquered Manchuria, which until then had been part of China. In 1937 Japan began a long and ultimately unsuccessful campaign to conquer the rest of China. In 1940, the Japanese government allied their country with Nazi Germany in the Axis Alliance, and, in the following year, occupied all of Indochina.

The United States, which had important political and economic interests in East Asia, was alarmed by these Japanese moves. The U.S. increased military and financial aid to China, embarked on a program of strengthening its military power in the Pacific, and cut off the shipment of oil and other raw materials to Japan.

Because Japan was poor in natural resources, its government viewed these steps, especially the embargo on oil as a threat to the nation's survival. Japan's leaders responded by resolving to seize the resource-rich territories of Southeast Asia, even though that move would certainly result in war with the United States.

The problem with the plan was the danger posed by the U.S. Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese fleet, devised a plan to immobilize the U.S. fleet at the outset of the war with a surprise attack.

The key elements in Yamamoto's plans were meticulous preparation, the achievement of surprise, and the use of aircraft carriers and naval aviation on an unprecedented scale. In the spring of 1941, Japanese carrier pilots began training in the special tactics called for by the Pearl Harbor attack plan.

In October 1941 the naval general staff gave final approval to Yamamoto's plan, which called for the formation of an attack force commanded by Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo. It centered around six heavy aircraft carriers accompanied by 24 supporting vessels. A separate group of submarines was to sink any American warships which escaped the Japanese carrier force.

Nagumo's fleet assembled in the remote anchorage of Tankan Bay in the Kurile Islands and departed in strictest secrecy for Hawaii on 26 November 1941. The ships' route crossed the North Pacific and avoided normal shipping lanes. At dawn 7 December 1941, the Japanese task force had approached undetected to a point slightly more than 200 miles north of Oahu. At this time the U.S. carriers were not at Pearl Harbor. On 28 November, Admiral Kimmel sent USS Enterprise under Rear Admiral Willliam Halsey to deliver Marine Corps fighter planes to Wake Island. On 4 December Enterprise delivered the aircraft and on December 7 the task force was on its way back to Pearl Harbor. On 5 December, Admiral Kimmel sent the USS Lexington with a task force under Rear Admiral Newton to deliver 25 scout bombers to Midway Island. The last Pacific carrier, USS Saratoga, had left Pearl Harbor for upkeep and repairs on the West Coast.

At 6:00 a.m. on 7 December, the six Japanese carriers launched a first wave of 181 planes composed of torpedo bombers, dive bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters. Even as they winged south, some elements of U.S. forces on Oahu realized there was something different about this Sunday morning.

In the hours before dawn, U.S. Navy vessels spotted an unidentified submarine periscope near the entrance to Pearl Harbor. It was attacked and reported sunk by the destroyer USS Ward (DD-139) and a patrol plane. At 7:00 a.m., an alert operator of an Army radar station at Opana spotted the approaching first wave of the attack force. The officers to whom those reports were relayed did not consider them significant enough to take action. The report of the submarine sinking was handled routinely, and the radar sighting was passed off as an approaching group of American planes due to arrive that morning.

The Japanese aircrews achieved complete surprise when they hit American ships and military installations on Oahu shortly before 8:00 a.m. They attacked military airfields at the same time they hit the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor. The Navy air bases at Ford Island and Kaneohe Bay, the Marine airfield at Ewa and the Army Air Corps fields at Bellows, Wheeler and Hickam were all bombed and strafed as other elements of the attacking force began their assaults on the ships moored in Pearl Harbor. The purpose of the simultaneous attacks was to destroy the American planes before they could rise to intercept the Japanese.

Of the more than 90 ships at anchor in Pearl Harbor, the primary targets were the eight battleships anchored there. seven were moored on Battleship Row along the southeast shore of Ford Island while the USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) lay in drydock across the channel. Within the first minutes of the attack all the battleships adjacent to Ford Island had taken bomb and or torpedo hits. The USS West Virginia (BB-48) sank quickly. The USS Oklahoma (BB-37) turned turtle and sank. At about 8:10 a.m., the USS Arizona (BB-39) was mortally wounded by an armorpiercing bomb which ignited the ship's forward ammunition magazine. The resulting explosion and fire killed 1,177 crewmen, the greatest loss of life on any ship that day and about half the total number of Americans killed. The USS California (BB-44), USS Maryland (BB-46), USS Tennessee (BB-43) and USS Nevada (BB-36) also suffered varying degrees of damage in the first half hour of the raid.

There was a short lull in the fury of the attack at about 8:30 a.m. At that time the USS Nevada (BB-36), despite her wounds, managed to get underway and move down the channel toward the open sea. Before she could clear the harbor, a second wave of 170 Japanese planes, launched 30 minutes after the first, appeared over the harbor. They concentrated their attacks on the moving battleship, hoping to sink her in the channel and block the narrow entrance to Pearl Harbor. On orders from the harbor control tower, the USS Nevada (BB-36) beached herself at Hospital Point and the channel remained clear.

When the attack ended shortly before 10:00 a.m., less than two hours after it began, the American forces has paid a fearful price. Twenty-one ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were sunk or damaged: the battleships USS Arizona (BB-39), USS California (BB-44), USS Maryland (BB-46), USS Nevada (BB-36), USS Oklahoma (BB-37), USS Pennsylvania (BB-38), USS Tennessee (BB-43) and USS West Virginia (BB-48); cruisers USS Helena (CL-50), USS Honolulu (CL-48) and USS Raleigh (CL-7); the destroyers USS Cassin (DD-372), USS Downes (DD-375), USS Helm (DD-388) and USS Shaw (DD-373); seaplane tender USS Curtiss (AV-4); target ship (ex-battleship) USS Utah (AG-16); repair ship USS Vestal (AR-4); minelayer USS Oglala (CM-4); tug USS Sotoyomo (YT-9); and Floating Drydock Number 2. Aircraft losses were 188 destroyed and 159 damaged, the majority hit before the had a chance to take off. American dead numbered 2,403. That figure included 68 civilians, most of them killed by improperly fused anti-aircraft shells landing in Honolulu. There were 1,178 military and civilian wounded.

Japanese losses were comparatively light. Twenty-nine planes, less than 10 percent of the attacking force, failed to return to their carriers.

The Japanese success was overwhelming, but it was not complete. They failed to damage any American aircraft carriers, which by a stroke of luck, had been absent from the harbor. They neglected to damage the shoreside facilities at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, which played an important role in the Allied victory in World War II. American technological skill raised and repaired all but three of the ships sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor (the USS Arizona (BB-39) considered too badly damaged to be salvaged, the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) raised and considered too old to be worth repairing, and the obsolete USS Utah (AG-16) considered not worth the effort). Most importantly, the shock and anger caused by the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor united a divided nation and was translated into a wholehearted commitment to victory in World War II.

At 7:55 a.m. Hawaii time, a Japanese dive bomber bearing the red symbol of the Rising Sun of Japan on its wings appears out of the clouds above the island of Oahu. A swarm of 360 Japanese warplanes followed, descending on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in a ferocious assault. The surprise attack struck a critical blow against the U.S. Pacific fleet and drew the United States irrevocably into World War II.

With diplomatic negotiations with Japan breaking down, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his advisers knew that an imminent Japanese attack was probable, but nothing had been done to increase security at the important naval base at Pearl Harbor. It was Sunday morning, and many military personnel had been given passes to attend religious services off base. At 7:02 a.m., two radar operators spotted large groups of aircraft in flight toward the island from the north, but, with a flight of B-17s expected from the United States at the time, they were told to sound no alarm. Thus, the Japanese air assault came as a devastating surprise to the naval base.

Much of the Pacific fleet was rendered useless: Five of eight battleships, three destroyers, and seven other ships were sunk or severely damaged, and more than 200 aircraft were destroyed. A total of 2,400 Americans were killed and 1,200 were wounded, many while valiantly attempting to repulse the attack. Japan's losses were some 30 planes, five midget submarines, and fewer than 100 men. Fortunately for the United States, all three Pacific fleet carriers were out at sea on training maneuvers. These giant aircraft carriers would have their revenge against Japan six months later at the Battle of Midway, reversing the tide against the previously invincible Japanese navy in a spectacular victory.

The day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, President Roosevelt appeared before a joint session of Congress and declared, "Yesterday, December 7, 1941--a date which will live in infamy--the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." After a brief and forceful speech, he asked Congress to approve a resolution recognizing the state of war between the United States and Japan. The Senate voted for war against Japan by 82 to 0, and the House of Representatives approved the resolution by a vote of 388 to 1. The sole dissenter was Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, a devout pacifist who had also cast a dissenting vote against the U.S. entrance into World War I. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war against the United States, and the U.S. government responded in kind.

The American contribution to the successful Allied war effort spanned four long years and cost more than 400,000 American lives.

2011-11-24T16:16:00.005-06:00

Herman H. Hanneken
United States Marine Corps

Recipient of Medal of Honor, two Navy Crosses, and a Silver Star, Bronze Star, among others

Herman Henry Hanneken (June 23, 1893 - August 23, 1986) was a United States Marine Corps officer and a recipient of the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor.

Beginning his career as an enlisted man, Hanneken served in the Banana Wars of the 1910s and 1920s. During the United States occupation of Haiti, he assassinated the resistance leader Charlemagne Peralte, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor. Subsequently granted a commission, Hanneken served in Haiti for several more months and was awarded a Navy Cross for killing another rebel leader. He received a second Navy Cross for his actions during the occupation of Nicaragua in the late 1920s.

After a decade of stateside duty, he served in the Pacific Theater of World War II. During this conflict, he was awarded the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, and the Bronze Star. He retired in 1948, after a thirty-four-year career, and was promoted in retirement to brigadier general.

Early years and career
Herman Henry Hanneken was born on June 23, 1893, in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended the Henrick Preparatory School in that city.

He enlisted in the Marine Corps as a private in July 1914, and served the following five years in the enlisted ranks, rising to the rank of sergeant.

Occupation of Haiti
The United States invaded Haiti in 1915 and occupied the country for 19 years. In the years following the initial invasion, rebel forces under Charlemagne Peralte conducted an armed resistance to the occupation. On the night of October 31- November 1, 1919, Hanneken assassinated the resistance leader, Peralte. Hanneken was disguised and led into the rebels camp in Northern Haiti by Jean-Baptiste Conze, one of Peralte's officers who betrayed the Haitian leader. In the short skirmish that ensued, Hanneken killed Peralte and about 1,200 of his followers were killed, captured, or dispersed. Hanneken subsequently circulated a photograph of Peralte's half-naked body tied to a door. However, the attempt to intimidate backfired and instead evoked sympathy for Peralte. Hanneken was awarded the Medal of Honor for "extraordinary heroism" and "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in actual conflict with the enemy" and, in December 1919, appointed a second lieutenant.

In another raid just five months after the death of Charlemagne, he shot and killed Osiris Joseph, another Haitian rebel leader who succeeded Charlemagne. He was awarded the Navy Cross for this act.

Upon appointment as a second lieutenant he was assigned to train the Haitian police force, the Gendarmerie. He was ordered to return to the United States in April 1920, and following his arrival at the Marine Barracks, Quantico, Virginia, he was assigned to a special course at the Marine Corps Schools.

1920s service and occupation of Nicaragua
As a member of the 6th Regiment, First Lieutenant Hanneken sailed for Brazil to participate in the Brazilian Exposition. The unit returned to Quantico in the latter part of 1922, and several months later, he was transferred to the Marine Detachment, USS Antares where he assumed duties as commanding officer.

In January 1925, he was transferred to the Marine Barracks, Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey, and in April 1927, was detached to the Marine Barracks at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

Again ordered to foreign shore duty in December 1928, he arrived in Corinto, Nicaragua in January of the following year. Upon his arrival in Nicaragua he was assigned to duty with the 2nd Brigade of Marines. The United States had invaded this Central American country in 1912 and had been occupying it since. A month after his arrival Hanneken captured another leader of the rebel forces resisting the invasion by the United States. He was awarded his second Navy Cross for "bringing in" General Jos Mara Jirуn Ruano, the Guatemalan Chief of Staff of the Nicaraguan General Augusto Sandino.

Service in the 1930s
In July 1930, Hanneken returned to Quantico to attend the Company Officers' Course at the Marine Corps Schools. Upon graduation in January of the next year, he was transferred to the Marine Corps Base at San Diego, California, and later to the Naval Base, at San Pedro, California. His next assignment found him at the Marine Barracks, Mare Island, California, in August 1936, where during his tour of duty he was appointed a major.

Major Hanneken was ordered to Quantico in June 1938, and two months later reported for a course of instruction at that base in the Senior Course, Marine Corps Schools.

From June 1939 to December 1940, he was Commanding Officer, Marine Barracks, Naval Ammunition Depot, Hingham, Massachusetts. He was next ordered to New York to assume command of the Marine Detachment aboard the USS Harry Lee with additional duties as Transport Quartermaster.

World War II and later life
He served with the 1st Marine Division from June 1941 until November 1944, when he returned to the United States to command the 2nd Infantry Training Regiment and the Headquarters Battalion, at Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, California.

While with the famed 1st Marine Division his duties were varied. While Commanding Officer of the 7th Marines during the Guadalcanal campaign he was awarded the Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the enemy. During the Peleliu action he received the Legion of Merit for meritorious conduct in action, and during the Cape Gloucester operation he was decorated with the Bronze Star.

In September 1945, he was assigned as commanding officer of the Staging Regiment at the Marine Training and Replacement Command, San Diego Area, prior to his transfer to the Troop Training Unit, Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet.

It was as Chief of Staff of that organization that he was transferred to the retired list for Marine Corps Officers. He retired on July 1, 1948, concluding a thirty-four-year career in the Marine Corps. He was advanced to his final rank of brigadier general upon his retirement for having been specially commended for service in actual combat.

Brigadier General Hanneken died on August 23, 1986 at the Veterans Hospital in LaJolla, California, and was buried with honors four days later at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego, California. He was 93 years old.

Honors and awards
Medal of Honor Navy Cross w/ 1 award star Silver Star
Legion of Merit Bronze Star Navy Presidential Unit Citation Navy Unit Commendation
Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal Mexican Service Medal Haitian Campaign Medal (1917)
World War I Victory Medal Nicaraguan Campaign Medal (1933) American Defense Service Medal American Campaign Medal
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal w/ 3 service stars World War II Victory Medal Haitian Military Medal w/ 2 gold stars Nicaraguan Medal of Merit

Medal of Honor citation

HANNEKEN, Herman Henry
2nd Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps
G. O. Navy Department, No. 536
June 10, 1920

Citation:
For extraordinary heroism and conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in actual conflict with the enemy near GRANDE RIVIERE, Republic of Haiti, on the night of October 31st-November 1st, 1919, resulting in the death of Charlemange Peralte, the supreme bandit chief in the Republic of Haiti, and the killing and capture and dispersal of about 1200 of his outlaw followers. Second Lieutenant Hanneken not only distinguished himself by his excellent judgement and leadership, but unhesitatingly exposed himself to great personal danger, and the slightest error would have forfeited not only his life but the lives of the detachments of Gendarmerie under his command. The successful termination of his mission will undoubtedly prove of untold value to the Republic of Haiti.

2011-11-15T09:44:00.003-06:00

Thanksgiving Day - 2011
What do people do?

Noah's personal thanks to President Barack Obama for bringing all the American troops out of Iraq and allowing them the sing the 1943 recorded song of Bing Crosby, "I'll Be Home for Christmas" which topped the charts as one of America's most popular holiday songs. This song touched the hearts of Americans who were still fighting in World War II. My thanks also goes to all military personnel for their service and dedication to our country. First verse of the lyrics that was written by James 'Kim' Gannon with music composed by Walter Kent.

"I'll be home for Christmas,
You can count on me.
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree."

Thanksgiving Day is traditionally a day for families and friends to get together for a special meal. The meal often includes a turkey, stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, pumpkin pie, and vegetables. Thanksgiving Day is a time for many people to give thanks for what they have.

Chef Noah's Thanksgiving Turkey recipe

Ingredients
2 tablespoons dried parsley
2 tablespoons ground dried rosemary
2 tablespoons rubbed dried sage
2 tablespoons dried thyme leaves
1 tablespoon lemon pepper
1 tablespoon salt
1 (15 pound) whole turkey, neck and giblets removed
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 orange, cut into wedges
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
1 (750 milliliter) bottle champagne

Directions

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Line a turkey roaster with long sheets of aluminum foil that will be long enough to wrap over the turkey.
Stir together the parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, lemon pepper, and salt in a small bowl. Rub the herb mixture into the cavity of the turkey, then stuff with the celery, orange, onion, and carrot. Truss if desired, and place the turkey into the roasting pan. Pour the chicken broth and champagne over the turkey, making sure to get some champagne in the cavity. Bring the aluminum foil over the top of the turkey, and seal. Try to keep the foil from touching the skin of the turkey breast or legs.

Bake the turkey in the preheated oven for 2 1/2 to 3 hours until no longer pink at the bone and the juices run clear. Uncover the turkey, and continue baking until the skin turns golden brown, 30 minutes to 1 hour longer. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh, near the bone should read 180 degrees.Remove the turkey from the oven, cover with a doubled sheet of aluminum foil, and allow to rest in a warm area 10 to 15 minutes before slicing.

Thanksgiving Day parades are held in some cities and towns on or around Thanksgiving Day. Some parades or festivities also mark the opening of the Christmas shopping season. Some people have a four-day weekend so it is a popular time for trips and to visit family and friends.

New York City

At 9 a.m. the 85th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will begin. The parade travels down Central Park West from 77th Street to Columbus Circle along Central Park South to 7th Avenue, down 7th Avenue to 42nd Street, along 42nd Street to 6th Avenue, down 6th Avenue to 34th Street and along 34th Street to Macy's Herald Square (34th Street). This will be televised.

Football

The Miami Dolphins will travel to Dallas to face the Cowboys and the Detroit Lions will host the Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers for the traditional 2011 Thanksgiving Classic games. The Thanksgiving nightcap on the NFL Network will be the San Francisco 49ers traveling to play the Baltimore Ravens; this is the first Thanksgiving game for the 49ers since 1972, the first ever for the Ravens, and a game that puts 1st-year 49ers' head coach Jim Harbaugh against his brother, Ravens' head coach John Harbaugh.

Public life

Most government offices, businesses, schools and other organizations are closed on Thanksgiving Day. Many offices and businesses allow staff to have a four-day weekend so these offices and businesses also closed on the Friday after Thanksgiving Day. Public transit systems do not usually operate on their regular timetables.

Thanksgiving Day it is one of the busiest periods for travel in the USA. This can cause congestion and overcrowding. Seasonal parades and busy football games can cause disruption to local traffic.

Background

Thanksgiving Day has been an annual holiday in the United States since 1863. Not everyone sees Thanksgiving Day as a cause for celebration. Each year since 1970, a group of Native Americans and their supporters have staged a protest for a National Day of Mourning at Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts on Thanksgiving Day. American Indian Heritage Day is also observed at this time of the year.

There are claims that the first Thanksgiving Day was held in the city of El Paso, Texas in 1598. Another early event was held in 1619 in the Virginia Colony. Many people trace the origins of the modern Thanksgiving Day to the harvest celebration that the Pilgrims held in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. However, their first true thanksgiving was in 1623, when they gave thanks for rain that ended a drought. These early thanksgivings took the form of a special church service, rather than a feast.

In the second half of the 1600s, thanksgivings after the harvest became more common and started to become annual events. However, it was celebrated on different days in different communities and in some places there were more than one thanksgiving each year. George Washington, the first president of the United States, proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving Day in 1789.

2011-11-11T05:21:00.005-06:00

Stephen W. Pless, Major
United States Marine Corps
Medal of Honor recipient

NOAH'S NOTE: My thanks for this goes to former U.S. Marine Lt. Mark Byrd, Vietnam veteran helicopter pilot and now enjoys an artist-sculptor career. Mr. Byrd made a sculptor of Major Stephen W. Pless, which is located in Pless' hometown, Newnan, Georgia, at the Veterans Memorial Plaza. Visit http://www.markbyrd.com/ To view the sculptor and click on Memorial Sculptor of Stephen W. Pless. Mark Byrd now lives in Dallas, and he may be contacted at mark@markbyrd.com
*****
Stephen Wesley Pless (September 6, 1939 - July 20, 1969) was a major in the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. He earned the Medal of Honor as a UH-1 Iroquois "Huey" helicopter pilot for rescuing soldiers trapped by heavy enemy fire. He was the only Marine aviator awarded the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War.

Childhood
Pless was born Stephen Pollard on September 6, 1939, in Newnan, Georgia. After his parents divorced, his mother Nancy Lassetter Pollard moved to Atlanta and remarried, to Berlin Pless. Stephen was adopted by his stepfather and took the Pless surname. He attended Decatur High School in Decatur before transferring to Georgia Military Academy in College Park, graduating from that school in 1957.

Early career
While a senior at Georgia Military Academy, Pless enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve on September 6, 1956, and served with the 1st Motor Transport Battalion in Atlanta. After graduation, he attended recruit training and advanced combat training at Parris Island, South Carolina, finishing in October 1957. He then served as an artillery surveyor with the 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, until September 1958.

While attending flight training at Pensacola, Florida, he was commissioned a second lieutenant on September 16, 1959. He was promoted to first lieutenant on March 16, 1960, and designated a naval aviator upon graduation from flight training on April 20, 1960.

Pless next served successively as squadron pilot with HMR(L)-262, Marine Aircraft Group 26 (MAG-26), at New River, North Carolina; with HMR(L)-264 aboard the USS Boxer (CV-21) and later the USS Wasp (CV-18); again with HMR(L)-262, Marine Aircraft Group 26, at New River; as Assistant Administrative Officer of HMR(L)-262 aboard the USS Shadwell (LSD-15); and as Squadron Adjutant, HMM-162, Marine Aircraft Group 26, at New River.

Vietnam War
Ordered to east Asia in June 1962, he saw duty as Assistant Administrative Officer of HMM-162, MAG-26, in Thailand, and at Da Nang, in the Republic of Vietnam. Upon his return to the United States in June 1963, he reported to Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida and served as a basic flight instructor, VT-1, and later as Officer in Charge, Aviation Officer Candidate School. He was promoted to captain on July 1, 1964.

After his detachment in April 1966, Pless was assigned duty as Brigade Platoon Commander, 1st ANGLICO, Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. In August 1966, he became Officer in Charge, Republic of Korea Detachment, and later Brigade Air Officer, 1st ANGLICO, Sub-Unit 1, with the 2d Brigade Korean Marine Corps, at Chu Lai, in the Republic of Vietnam. For his service in this capacity, he was awarded a Bronze Star Medal and the Korean Order of Military Merit.

From March 20 to September 22, 1967, Pless served in Vietnam as Assistant Operations Officer, VMO-6, Marine Aircraft Group 36, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing. During this time, he earned the Medal of Honor, the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Purple Heart, and 32 Air Medals.

Over the course of his time in Vietnam, Pless flew a total of 780 combat missions. He was the only Marine aviator awarded the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War.

A complete list of his medals and decorations include the Medal of Honor, the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star, 38 Air Medals, the Navy Commendation Medal with valor device, the Purple Heart, the Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Order of Military Merit, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, and the Vietnam Campaign Medal.

Life after Vietnam

After his return from Vietnam, Pless served as an administrative assistant of Aviation Officer Candidate School at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. While serving in that capacity, he was promoted to major on November 7, 1967.

On January 16, 1969, four days before leaving office, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented Pless the Medal of Honor at a White House ceremony. Also receiving the Medal of Honor that day was fellow Newnan, Georgia, native Joe M. Jackson, an Air Force pilot who, like Pless, had earned the nation's highest military decoration for an air rescue in Vietnam. Legend states that, upon realizing that both Pless and Jackson were from the same small Georgia town, President Johnson quipped "there must be something in the water down in Newnan".

The Department of Defense, recognizing the extreme circumstances of the helicopter rescue, awarded all three of Pless's crewmates decorations. Rupert Fairfield, Leroy Poulson, and John Phelps were each awarded the Navy Cross, the second highest Naval award for valor. The combined crew of four represent the most highly-decorated helicopter crew to fly in the Vietnam War.

Pless died in a motorcycle accident on July 20, 1969, just over six months after receiving the nation's highest award for gallantry in action. While driving across a drawbridge which connected the city of Pensacola to Pensacola Beach, his motorcycle plunged off the end of the open bridge into the water. The center span of the bridge opened horizontally, and Pless did not realize it was open until it was too late. His body was recovered by divers seven hours later. News of his death was overshadowed by the Apollo 11 moon landing, which occurred the same day.

Posthumous honors
The United States Navy honored Pless by naming a Maritime Prepositioning ship after him. Dedicated in the 1970s, the Jackson-Pless National Guard Armory in Newnan honors both of the town's Medal of Honor recipients.

The Huey helicopter which Pless flew during his Medal of Honor mission is on display at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia.

The Collings Foundation, of Stow, Massachusetts, currently owns and operates a VMO-6 UH-1E Huey flown by Pless in combat. This aircraft is a sistership to the MOH aircraft on display at Quantico. It is based in Houston, Texas with other aircraft of the Collings Foundation Viet Nam Memorial Flight. It is flown at airshows and special events.

Medal of Honor citation
Rank and organization: Major (then Capt.), U.S. Marine Corps, VMO-6, MAG-36, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing. Place and date: Near Quang Nai, Republic of Vietnam, August 19, 1967. Entered service at: Atlanta, Ga. Born: September 6, 1939, Newnan, Ga.

Citation
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a helicopter gunship pilot attached to Marine Observation Squadron 6 in action against enemy forces. During an escort mission Maj. Pless monitored an emergency call that 4 American soldiers stranded on a nearby beach were being overwhelmed by a large Viet Cong force. Maj. Pless flew to the scene and found 30 to 50 enemy soldiers in the open. Some of the enemy were bayoneting and beating the downed Americans. Maj. Pless displayed exceptional airmanship as he launched a devastating attack against the enemy force, killing or wounding many of the enemy and driving the remainder back into a treeline. His rocket and machinegun attacks were made at such low levels that the aircraft flew through debris created by explosions from its rockets. Seeing 1 of the wounded soldiers gesture for assistance, he maneuvered his helicopter into a position between the wounded men and the enemy, providing a shield which permitted his crew to retrieve the wounded. During the rescue the enemy directed intense fire at the helicopter and rushed the aircraft again and again, closing to within a few feet before being beaten back. When the wounded men were aboard, Maj. Pless maneuvered the helicopter out to sea. Before it became safely airborne, the overloaded aircraft settled 4 times into the water. Displaying superb airmanship, he finally got the helicopter aloft. Major Pless' extraordinary heroism coupled with his outstanding flying skill prevented the annihilation of the tiny force. His courageous actions reflect great credit upon himself and uphold the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service.

2011-11-01T04:45:00.002-06:00

Veterans Day
11th Day-11th Month-11th Year

World War I - known at the time as "The Great War" - officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of "the war to end all wars."

In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.

The original concept for the celebration was for a day observed with parades and public meetings and a brief suspension of business beginning at 11:00 a.m.

The United States Congress officially recognized the end of World War I when it passed a concurrent resolution on June 4, 1926, with these words:

Whereas the 11th of November 1918, marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, which we hope may never again be severed, and

Whereas it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations; and

Whereas the legislatures of twenty-seven of our States have already declared November 11 to be a legal holiday: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that the President of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.

An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday - a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as "Armistice Day." Armistice Day was primarily a day set aside to honor veterans of World War I, but in 1954, after World War II had required the greatest mobilization of soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen in the Nation's history; after American forces had fought aggression in Korea, the 83rd Congress, at the urging of the veterans service organizations, amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word "Armistice" and inserting in its place the word "Veterans." With the approval of this legislation (Public Law 380) on June 1, 1954, November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.

Later that same year, on October 8th, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first "Veterans Day Proclamation" which stated: "In order to insure proper and widespread observance of this anniversary, all veterans, all veterans' organizations, and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose. Toward this end, I am designating the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs as Chairman of a Veterans Day National Committee, which shall include such other persons as the Chairman may select, and which will coordinate at the national level necessary planning for the observance. I am also requesting the heads of all departments and agencies of the Executive branch of the Government to assist the National Committee in every way possible."

On that same day, President Eisenhower sent a letter to the Honorable Harvey V. Higley, Administrator of Veterans' Affairs (VA), designating him as Chairman of the Veterans Day National Committee.

In 1958, the White House advised VA's General Counsel that the 1954 designation of the VA Administrator as Chairman of the Veterans Day National Committee applied to all subsequent VA Administrators. Since March 1989 when VA was elevated to a cabinet level department, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs has served as the committee's chairman.

The Uniform Holiday Bill (Public Law 90-363 (82 Stat. 250)) was signed on June 28, 1968, and was intended to ensure three-day weekends for Federal employees by celebrating four national holidays on Mondays: Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Columbus Day. It was thought that these extended weekends would encourage travel, recreational and cultural activities and stimulate greater industrial and commercial production. Many states did not agree with this decision and continued to celebrate the holidays on their original dates.

The first Veterans Day under the new law was observed with much confusion on October 25, 1971. It was quite apparent that the commemoration of this day was a matter of historic and patriotic significance to a great number of our citizens, and so on September 20th, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed Public Law 94-97 (89 Stat. 479), which returned the annual observance of Veterans Day to its original date of November 11, beginning in 1978. This action supported the desires of the overwhelming majority of state legislatures, all major veterans service organizations and the American people.

Veterans Day continues to be observed on November 11, regardless of what day of the week on which it falls. The restoration of the observance of Veterans Day to November 11 not only preserves the historical significance of the date, but helps focus attention on the important purpose of Veterans Day: A celebration to honor America's veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.

2011-10-26T05:42:00.004-06:00

Trick-or-Treat-it's Halloween

31 October 2011

Halloween is the one of the oldest holidays still celebrated today. It's one of the most popular holidays, second only to Christmas. While millions of people celebrate Halloween without knowing its origins and myths, the history and facts of Halloween make the holiday more fascinating.

Some people view Halloween as a time for fun, putting on costumes, trick-or-treating, and having theme parties. Others view it as a time of superstitions, ghosts, goblins and evil spirits that should be avoided at all costs.

As the Christian debate goes on, celebrating Halloween is a preference that is not always viewed as participating in an evil holiday. Halloween is often celebrated with no reference to pagan rituals or the occult.

Halloween History

Halloween is on October 31st, the last day of the Celtic calendar. It was originally a pagan holiday, honoring the dead. Halloween was referred to as All Hallows Eve and dates back to over 2000 years ago.

All Hallows Eve is the evening before All Saints Day, which was created by Christians to convert pagans, and is celebrated on November 1st. The Catholic church honored saints on this designated day.

Origin of Halloween

While there are many versions of the origins and old customs of Halloween, some remain consistent by all accounts. Different cultures view Halloween somewhat differently but traditional Halloween practices remain the same.

Halloween culture can be traced back to the Druids, a Celtic culture in Ireland, Britain and Northern Europe. Roots lay in the feast of Samhain, which was annually on October 31st to honor the dead.

Samhain signifies "summers end" or November. Samhain was a harvest festival with huge sacred bonfires, marking the end of the Celtic year and beginning of a new one. Many of the practices involved in this celebration were fed on superstition.

The Celts believed the souls of the dead roamed the streets and villages at night. Since not all spirits were thought to be friendly, gifts and treats were left out to pacify the evil and ensure next years crops would be plentiful. This custom evolved into trick-or-treating.

2011-10-23T09:01:00.002-06:00

A Love Story
Affirmed Life in Time of War

They met in the Weapons Room, where sports receptions were held in those days.

Bill Zadel and his wife, Betty, were married 46 years.

Bill Zadel with the Army football coach Red Blaik, receiving an athletes scholar award in 1964.

Betty Nickla was visiting the United States Military Academy to watch her brother wrestle, when somebody sidled up to her on the buffet line and said a very nice football player would like to meet her.

Turned out, Bill Zadel was quite a player a tight end and defensive tackle, who would play nearly 60 minutes when Army beat Roger Staubach and Navy, 11-8, in 1964.

I said, O.K., Betty Zadel recalled the other day. I was impressed right from the start. He wasn't one of those guys who talked about himself. He just, you know, he seemed like such a good guy and down to earth. We started dating toward the end of his yearling year, and then he went away for training in the summertime in the U.S., and then we started dating as he came back as a cow, which was his junior year, and after that, we were engaged. It was meant to be.

They were married 46 years, as he took an epic American path, from college all-star to Marine in Vietnam to corporate executive and solid family man the ideal of scholar-athlete-citizen that football, in particular, likes to display.

On Sept. 8, Zadel woke up early to make coffee and read the paper, as he always did, and died suddenly, at 68. On Thursday, family and friends will honor him with a service at West Point.

This is the second wave of deaths for the class of 1965. The natural life cycle wave arrived much too soon for a healthy man like Zadel; the earlier one came in the late '60s, when classmates were being killed in Vietnam. It began to get personal, as Zadel's good friend and quarterback Rollie Stichweh puts it.

The two teammates came home, healthy embodiments of what Johnny Cash expressed in his song "Drive On," about a survivor: You're a walkin' talkin' miracle from Vietnam.

The miracle for Zadel included coming home to Betty and raising their three children, Bart, Elizabeth and David, enjoying six grandchildren and rising to the top of corporate life.

Early this year, Zadel filled out a questionnaire for his class records, in neat handwriting and thoughtful prose. In 19 pages, he sheepishly recalled being given a better grade than he deserved ? one time after beating Staubach, following five straight losses to Navy. He talked with pride about his great education at West Point and being accepted into the Marines.

He got into the Corps of Engineers because of his class standing, his wife said the other day, which I thought was terrific because our first duty assignment was going to be in Germany. But he called me and said he was so excited because he was able to be in the Marine Corps because his father was also in the Corps, and I said: Oh, my gosh, we're going to be in Quantico and not Germany. So that was a big surprise.

Zadel graduated June 9, 1965, and married Betty on Long Island three days later. The very large suitor was accepted by her father and her three athletic brothers, and after a touchy tour at Guantanamo in Cuba, he went off to war in 1967.

She said, I remember when he left for Vietnam, he said, If I don't come back, don't be upset, because I'm doing exactly what I was trained to do.

In Vietnam, Zadel wrote: At 6-4, I was surrounded by Vietnamese Ranger counterparts who stood between 4-8 and 5-4. I was a big target, to say the least. Fortunately, he added, the Vietcong were bad shots, and he perfected running full speed in a duckwalk.

He came home with numerous medals to a country of growing doubts. When Betty went to New Jersey to welcome her husband, she had to drive through a swarm of protestors just to get on the base.

In 1968, Zadel was assigned to his hometown, Chicago, in charge of recruiting. Somebody scheduled a swearing-in ceremony for 100 recruits downtown during the 1968 Democratic national convention. The event went on, with the help of the Chicago police.

With his service coming to an end, Zadel resigned from the Marines, turned down a tryout with the Bears and began a corporate tour of duty that involved, Betty estimated, 18 moves.

Zadel was calm, methodical, logical, smart but also impatient, she said. He wanted to keep moving onward and upward. He worked for Quaker Oats, earning an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, and moved on to Johnson and Johnson, Abbott Laboratories and Corning, and served as chief executive of Ciba-Corning Diagnostics, Millipore Corporation and Mykrolis Corporation before his retirement in 2004.

Betty Zadel, a tennis teacher and player for many years, praised her husband as a good father who refused to work weekends and gave up golf to have time with their children. People knew he had helped beat Staubach, and people also knew he had served in Vietnam.

Zadel played nearly 60 minutes when Army defeated Navy by a field goal in 1964.

I think Bill felt he didn't have to defend himself for being in Vietnam, Betty said. If people wanted to know about it, he was happy to talk about what he did. He wasn't a very political person. He kept his leanings to himself.

But not totally. In 2009, Zadel and Stichweh and their teammates assembled at the academy to honor Paul Dietzel, their coach, and Dietzel's wife, Anne. Zadel and Stichweh (whom I covered when he was in high school) sat around the Thayer Hotel and, somewhat to my surprise, started talking about Vietnam.

Stichweh had served with the 173rd Airborne, at Hill 875 near Dak To, one of the more gruesome battles of that war, and Zadel had served about 10 miles away, but they learned of the proximity only when they returned home safely.

Both officers were proud to feel they had been fighting to stop communism.

That was my story at cocktail parties, Zadel said in 2009, volunteering that he had changed his mind after learning about the misgivings of President Lyndon B. Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.

I read the excerpts from McNamara's book, Zadel said. I was incensed.

As we sat in the hotel, Stichweh noted that his 26 classmates buried at the academy had all died after McNamara had his own little epiphany.

Did they draw any overt lines between Vietnam and the current involvements in Afghanistan and Iraq, the latter apparently winding down? Not really. Besides, the Zadels' youngest child, David, served two hitches as a Marine in Iraq.

I'll tell you what, Betty said. It was tough having Bill in Vietnam, but it was a heck of a lot tougher to have a son in a war zone. Let me tell you, as a mother, you protect them your whole life, and then to have to worry about it. Bill was very stoic. All he kept saying was, David is well trained; don't worry about David, but I knew he was as concerned as I was. He just handled it better than I did.

By all accounts, Zadel handled everything well. He was a true believer who had room for complexity. Asked in the questionnaire about his most notable experience, Zadel wrote, being part of the winning Army football team for the 1964 victory over Navy.

He added: It taught me the lifelong lesson that, with hard work and strong desire, you can do anything. And doing it as part of a team is the Best! On Thursday at West Point, even Army people will agree that beating Navy was just part of Bill Zadel's legacy.

2011-10-15T09:08:00.001-06:00

Lewis B. 'Chesty' Puller
United States Marine Corps

Almost all that have served in the military are familiar with the name of Chesty Puller. This great Marine Corps warrior fought on lots of battlefields with his Marines under his command. At age 17, I was one of them during World War II and the Korean War. I attended his retirement party at Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune, N.C. on October 31, 1955. Chesty died on October 11, 1971.

During the many years of active duty, Chesty was awarded five Navy Crosses - the most of any Marine. It is an honor for me to list his citations on my Web site.

First Navy Cross citation

Citation:
"For distinguished service in the line of his profession while commanding a Nicaraguan National Guard patrol. First Lieutenant Lewis B. Puller, United States Marine Corps, successfully led his forces into five successful engagements against superior numbers of armed bandit forces; namely, at LaVirgen on 16 February 1930, at Los Cedros on 6 June 1930, at Moncotal on 22 July 1930, at Guapinol on 25 July 1930, and at Malacate on 19 August 1930, with the result that the bandits were in each engagement completely routed with losses of nine killed and many wounded. By his intelligent and forceful leadership without thought of his own personal safety, by great physical exertion and by suffering many hardships, Lieutenant Puller surmounted all obstacles and dealt five successive and severe blows against organized banditry in the Republic of Nicaragua."

Second Navy Cross citation

Citation:
"First Lieutenant Lewis B. Puller, United States Marine Corps (Captain, Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua) performed exceptionally meritorious service in a duty of great responsibility while in command of a Guardia Patrol from 20 September to 1 October 1932. Lieutenant Puller and his command of forty Guardia and Gunnery Sergeant William A. Lee, United States Marine Corps, serving as a First Lieutenant in the Guardia, penetrated the isolated mountainous bandit territory for a distance of from eighty to one hundred miles north of Jinotega, his nearest base. This patrol was ambushed on 26 September 1932, at a point northeast of Mount Kilambe by an insurgent force of one hundred fifty in a well-prepared position armed with not less than seven automatic weapons and various classes of small arms and well-supplied with ammunition. Early in the combat, Gunnery Sergeant Lee, the Second in Command was seriously wounded and reported as dead. The Guardia immediately behind Lieutenant Puller in the point was killed by the first burst of fire, Lieutenant Puller, with great courage, coolness and display of military judgment, so directed the fire and movement of his men that the enemy were driven first from the high ground on the right of his position, and then by a flanking movement forced from the high ground to the left and finally were scattered in confusion with a loss of ten killed and many wounded by the persistent and well-directed attack of the patrol. The numerous casualties suffered by the enemy and the Guardia losses of two killed and four wounded are indicative of the severity of the enemy resistance. This signal victory in jungle country, with no lines of communication and a hundred miles from any supporting force, was largely due to the indomitable courage and persistence of the patrol commander. Returning with the wounded to Jinotega, the patrol was ambushed twice by superior forces on 30 September. On both of the occasions the enemy was dispersed with severe losses."

Third Navy Cross citation

Citation:
"For extraordinary heroism as Commanding Officer of the First Battalion, Seventh Marines, First Marine Division, during the action against enemy Japanese forces on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on the night of 24 to 25 October 1942. While Lieutenant Colonel Puller’s battalion was holding a mile-long front in a heavy downpour of rain, a Japanese force, superior in number, launched a vigorous assault against that position of the line which passed through a dense jungle. Courageously withstanding the enemy’s desperate and determined attacks, Lieutenant Colonel Puller not only held his battalion to its position until reinforcements arrived three hours later, but also effectively commanded the augmented force until late in the afternoon of the next day. By his tireless devotion to duty and cool judgment under fire, he prevented a hostile penetration of our lines and was largely responsible for the successful defense of the sector assigned to his troops."

Fourth Navy Cross citation

Citation:
"For extraordinary heroism as Executive Officer of the Seventh Marines, First Marine Division, serving with the Sixth United States Army, in combat against enemy Japanese forces at Cape Gloucester, New Britain, from 26 December 1943 to 19 January 1944. Assigned temporary command of the Third Battalion, Seventh Marines, from 4 to 9 January, Lieutenant Colonel Puller quickly reorganized and advanced his unit, effecting the seizure of the objective without delay. Assuming additional duty in command of the Third Battalion, Fifth Marines, from 7 to 8 January, after the commanding officer and executive officer had been wounded, Lieutenant Colonel Puller unhesitatingly exposed himself to rifle, machine-gun and mortar fire from strongly entrenched Japanese positions to move from company to company in his front lines, reorganizing and maintaining a critical position along a fire-swept ridge. His forceful leadership and gallant fighting spirit under the most hazardous conditions were contributing factors in the defeat of the enemy during this campaign and in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service."

Fifth Navy Cross citation

Citation:
"For extraordinary heroism as Commanding Officer of the First Marines, First Marine Division (Reinforced), in action against aggressor forces in the vicinity of Koto-ri, Korea, from 5 to 10 December 1950. Fighting continuously in sub-zero weather against a vastly outnumbering hostile force, Colonel Puller drove off repeated and fanatical enemy attacks upon his Regimental defense sector and supply points. Although the area was frequently covered by grazing machine-gun fire and intense artillery and mortar fire, he coolly moved along his troops to insure their correct tactical employment, reinforced the lines as the situation demanded, and successfully defended the perimeter, keeping open the main supply routes for the movement of the Division. During the attack from Koto-ri to Hungnam, he expertly utilized his Regiment as the Division rear guard, repelling two fierce enemy assaults which severely threatened the security of the unit, and personally supervised the care and prompt evacuation of all casualties. By his unflagging determination, he served to inspire his men to heroic efforts in defense of their positions and assured the safety of much valuable equipment which would otherwise have been lost to the enemy. His skilled leadership, superb courage and valiant devotion to duty in the face of overwhelming odds reflect the highest credit upon Colonel Puller and the United States Naval Service."

Distinguished Service Cross citation

Citation:
"The President of the United States of America, under the provisions of the Act of Congress approved July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Colonel Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller (MCSN: 0-3158), United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy of the United Nations while serving as Commanding Officer, First Marines, FIRST Marine Division (Reinforced), in action against enemy aggressor forces in the vicinity of the Chosin Reservoir, Korea, during the period 29 November to 4 December 1950. Colonel Puller's actions contributed materially to the breakthrough of the First Marine Regiment in the Chosin Reservoir area and are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service."

Namesakes and honors

In addition to his military awards Chesty Puller has received numerous honors due to his Marine Corps service.

USS Lewis B. Puller (FFG-23)

The frigate Lewis B. Puller (FFG-23) was named after him.

Puller Hall

The headquarters building for 2nd Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team on Yorktown Naval Weapons Station in Yorktown, Virginia is named Puller Hall in his honor.

General Puller Hwy

Rt 33 In Middlesex County VA. The county in which Puller is buried.

Postage stamp

On November 10, 2005, the United States Postal Service issued its Distinguished Marines stamps in which Puller was honored.

Marine Corps mascot

The Marine Corps' mascot is perpetually named "Chesty Pullerton." (e.g. Chesty Pullerton XIII). He is always an English Bulldog.

Chesty Puller in Marine Corps culture

Chesty Puller remains a well known figure in Marine Corps folklore, with both true and exaggerated tales of his experiences being constantly recounted in the U.S. Marine Corps.

A common incantation in Marine Corps boot camp is to end one's day with the declaration, "Good night, Chesty Puller, wherever you are!" Another common encouragement is "Chesty Puller never quit!"

In Marine recruit training and OCS cadences, Marines chant "It was good for Chesty Puller/And it's good enough for me"- Chesty is symbolic of the esprit de corps of the Marines. Also, the recruits sing "Chesty Puller was a good Marine and a good Marine was he."

Marines, while doing pull-ups, will tell each other to "do one for Chesty!"

Chesty is loved by enlisted men for his constant actions to improve their lot. Puller insisted upon good equipment and discipline; once he came upon a second lieutenant who had ordered an enlisted man to salute him 100 times for missing a salute. Chesty told the lieutenant, "You were absolutely correct in making him salute you 100 times lieutenant, but you know that an officer must return every salute he receives. Now return them all."

While on duty in Hawaii and inspecting the armory, Puller fined himself $100 for discharging a .45 caliber pistol, although the charge for his men was only $20.

2011-10-13T10:17:00.002-06:00

Gregory 'Pappy' Boyington
Medal of Honor recipient
World War II - U. S. Marine Corps

Gregory Boyington was born in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho on December 4, 1912. He spent his childhood years in St. Maries, where he had is first flight with the legendary barn-stormer pilot Clyde Pangborn. Eventually his mother moved to Tacoma, Washington and later he graduated from Lincoln High School.

He attended the University of Washington, where he graduated with a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering. He would then go on to work for the Boeing Company as a draftsman and engineer.

He would eventually enter the U.S. Marine Corps, and after completion of the Officer Training he went on to flight training. He possessed natural abilities that distinguish him in the cockpit early on, but his lifestyle was not without controversy.

Boyington was offered a position with a group that would eventually become the American Volunteer Group (AVG), better known as the Flying Tigers. He resigned his commission in the Marine Corps and set off to China to fly against the Japanese.

At the outbreak of WWII, after making his way back from China, he managed to return to the Marine Corps with a Major’s commission. As he was already an experienced fighter pilot with victories against the Japanese, his skills were much needed in the war effort. From Guadalcanal he would eventually assume command of a group of pilots who were not already assigned to a squadron, and they would go on to be known as the "Black Sheep Squadron". Because he was older than the other pilots, they would call him “Gramps” and eventually that let to “Pappy” and it stuck. (He was 31 years old).

The Black Sheep Squadron amassed an impressive record of victories against the Japanese. Pappy Boyington was credited with 26 victories, until he was himself shot down over the Pacific and captured by the Japanese. He spent 20 months as a Prisoner of War, and was listed as Missing in Action for the duration of the war. Upon his liberation from the prison camp at the end of the war, he returned stateside and was greeted as a hero. He informed the Marines that on his final mission he downed two enemy aircraft, and his wingman downed one before he was too was shot down. His wingman, Capt. George Ashmun was killed.

The paperwork for his award of the Medal of Honor was already working through the system when he was shot down, it would be approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. With his status listed as missing and presumed dead, his award was held in the capitol until the end of the war.

Medal of Honor citation

His citation reads in full:
-------------------------------------------
The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to

MAJOR GREGORY BOYINGTON

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE

for service as set forth in the following CITATION:

For extraordinary heroism above and beyond the call of duty as Commanding Officer of Marine Fighting Squadron TWO FOURTEEN in action against enemy Japanese forces in Central Solomons Area from 12 September 1943 to 3 January 1944. Consistently outnumbered throughout successive hazardous flights over heavily defended hostile territory, Major Boyington struck at the enemy with daring and courageous persistence, leading his squadron into combat with devastating results to Japanese shipping, shore installations and aerial forces. Resolute in his efforts to inflict crippling damage on the enemy, Major Boyington led a formation of twenty-four fighters over Kahili on 17 October and, persistently circling the airdrome where sixty hostile aircraft were grounded, boldly challenged the Japanese to send up planes. Under his brilliant command, our fighters shot down twenty enemy craft in the ensuing action without the loss of a single ship. A superb airman and determined fighter against overwhelming odds, Major Boyington personally destroyed 26 of the many Japanese planes shot down by his squadron and by his forceful leadership developed the combat readiness in his command which was a distinctive factor in the Allied aerial achievements in this vitally strategic area.

:/S/FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

The Black Sheep Squadron

The Black Sheep squadron fought for eighty-four days. They met the Japanese over their own fields and territory and piled up a record of 203 planes destroyed or damaged, produced eight fighter aces with 97 confirmed air-to-air victories, sank several troop transports and supply ships, destroyed many installations, in addition to numerous other victories. For their actions, the original Black Sheep were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for extraordinary heroism in action.

Marine Fighter Squadron 214 was originally commissioned on July 1, 1942, at Marine Corps Air Station Ewa, on the Island of Oahu. Initially called the "Swashbucklers", they participated in the Solomon Islands campaign, flying out of Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. They were disbanded following their combat tour and the squadron designation was given to the Marine command on Espiritu Santo.

In August 1943, a group of twenty-seven young men under the leadership of Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington were joined together to form the original "Blacksheep" of VMF-214. The call sign "Black Sheep" was chosen by the squadron to commemorate the unusual way in which the squadron had been formed. Originally the squadron called itself "Boyington's Bastards" after its commander, but this label was considered unacceptable by the press. The pilots ranged from experienced combat veterans, with several air-to-air victories to their credit, to new replacement pilots from the United States. Major Boyington and Major Stan Bailey were given permission to form the unassigned pilots into a squadron, with the understanding that they would have less than four weeks to have them fully trained and ready for combat. They were very successful.

The Black Sheep Squadron has continued to serve to this day; having deployed to the Korean War, Vietnam War, Somalia, and The Global War on Terror.

While his Medal of Honor Citation was awarded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in March 1944; he was not decorated until October 5, 1945 due to his captivity by the Japanese. In a White House ceremony with other Sailors and Marines, he was personally decorated by President Harry S. Truman. He was also awarded the Navy Cross, the nations second highest honor, by the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Alexander A. Vandegrift.

Pappy Boyington died on January 11, 1988 in Fresno, California. He was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 7-A.

2011-10-07T14:28:00.001-06:00

Harper's Ferry Fire Engine House
Harper's Ferry
Now West Virginia

Under command of Colonel Robert E. Lee, United States Marines attacked the fire-engine house in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and captured John Brown and his men.

On August 19, 1859, John Brown, the Kansas abolitionist, and Frederick Douglass, the celebrated black abolitionist and former slave, met in an abandoned stone quarry near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. For three days, the two men discussed whether violence could be legitimately used to free the nation's slaves.

The Kansas guerrilla leader asked Douglass if he would join a band of raiders who would seize a federal arsenal and spark a mass uprising of slaves. "When I strike," Brown said, "the bees will begin to swarm, and I shall need you to help hive them."

"No," Douglass replied. Brown's plan, he knew, was suicidal. Brown had earlier proposed a somewhat more realistic plan. According to that scheme, Brown would have launched guerrilla activity in the Virginia mountains, providing a haven for slaves and an escape route into the North. That scheme had a chance of working, but Brown's new plan was hopeless.

Up until the Kansas-Nebraska Act, abolitionists were averse to the use of violence. Opponents of slavery hoped to use moral suasion and other peaceful means to eliminate slavery. But by the mid-1850s, the abolitionists' aversion to violence had begun to fade. On the night of October 16, 1859, violence came, and John Brown was its instrument.

As early as 1857, John Brown had begun to raise money and recruit men for an invasion of the South. Brown told his backers that only through insurrection could this "slave-cursed Republic be restored to the principles of the Declaration of Independence."

Brown's plan was to capture the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), and arm slaves from the surrounding countryside. His long-range goal was to drive southward into Tennessee and Alabama, raiding federal arsenals and inciting slave insurrections. Failing that, he hoped to ignite a sectional crisis that would destroy slavery.

At 8 o'clock Sunday evening, October 16, John Brown led a raiding party of approximately 21 men toward Harpers Ferry, where they captured the lone night watchman and cut the town's telegraph lines. Encountering no resistance, Brown's raiders seized the federal arsenal, an armory, and a rifle works along with several million dollars worth of arms and munitions. Brown then sent out several detachments to round up hostages and liberate slaves.

But Brown's play soon went awry. During the night, a church bell began to toll, warning neighboring farmers and militiamen from the surrounding countryside that a slave insurrection was under way. Local townspeople arose from their beds and gathered in the streets, armed with axes, knives, and squirrel rifles. Within hours, militia companies from villages within a 30-mile radius of Harpers Ferry cut off Brown's escape routes and trapped Brown's men in the armory.

Twice, Brown sent men carrying flags of truce to negotiate. On both occasions, drunken mobs, yelling "Kill them, Kill them," gunned the men down.

John Brown's assault against slavery lasted less than two days. Early Tuesday morning, October 18, U.S. Marines, commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee and Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart, arrived in Harpers Ferry. Brown and his men took refuge in a fire engine house and battered holes through the building's brick wall to shoot through. A hostage later described the climactic scene:

With one son dead by his side and another shot through, he felt the pulse of his dying son with one hand and held his rifle with the other and commanded his men, encouraging them to fire and sell their lives as dearly as they could.

Later that morning, Colonel Lee's marines stormed the engine house and rammed down its doors. Brown and his men continued firing until the leader of the storming party cornered Brown and knocked him unconscious with a sword. Five of Brown's party escaped, ten were killed, and seven, including Brown himself, were taken prisoner.

A week later, John Brown was put on trial in a Virginia court, even though his attack had occurred on federal property. During the six-day proceedings, Brown refused to plead insanity as a defense. He was found guilty of treason, conspiracy, and murder, and was sentenced to die on the gallows.

The trial's high point came at the very end when Brown was allowed to make a five-minute speech. His words helped convince thousands of Northerners that this grizzled man of 59, with his "piercing eyes" and "resolute countenance," was a martyr to the cause of freedom. Brown denied that he had come to Virginia to commit violence. His only goal, he said, was to liberate the slaves:

If it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice and mingle my blood with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I say let it be done.

Brown's execution was set for December 2. Before he went to the gallows, Brown wrote one last message: "I...am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood." At 11 A.M., he was led to the execution site, a halter was placed around his neck, and a sheriff led him over a trapdoor. The sheriff cut the rope and the trapdoor opened. As the old man's body convulsed on the gallows, a Virginia officer cried out: "So perish all enemies of Virginia!"

Across the North, church bells tolled, flags flew at half-mast, and buildings were draped in black bunting. Ralph Waldo Emerson compared Brown to Jesus Christ and declared that his death had made "the gallows as glorious as the cross." William Lloyd Garrison, previously the strongest exponent of nonviolent opposition to slavery, announced that Brown's death had convinced him of "the need for violence" to destroy slavery. He told a Boston meeting that "every slave holder has forfeited his right to live," if he opposed immediate emancipation.

Prominent Northern Democrats and Republicans, including Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, spoke out forcefully against Brown's raid and his tactics. Lincoln expressed the views of the Republican leadership, when he denounced Brown's raid as an act of "violence, bloodshed, and treason" that deserved to be punished by death. But Southern whites refused to believe that politicians like Lincoln and Douglas represented the true opinion of most Northerners. These men condemned Brown's "invasion," observed a Virginia senator, "only because it failed."

The Northern reaction to John Brown's raid convinced many white Southerners that a majority of Northerners wished to free the slaves and incite a race war. Southern extremists, known as "fire-eaters," told large crowds that John Brown's attack on Harpers Ferry was "the first act in the grand tragedy of emancipation, and the subjugation of the South in bloody treason."

After Harpers Ferry, Southerners increasingly believed that secession and creation of a slaveholding confederacy were now the South's only options. A Virginia newspaper noted that there were "thousands of men in our midst who, a month ago, scoffed at the idea of dissolution of the Union as a madman's dream, but who now hold the opinion that its days are numbered."

2011-10-04T13:33:00.003-06:00

United States Coast Guard

Members of the United States Coast Guard (USCG) are deployed around the world in peace and in war. During World War II, the numbers served were 241,093. They had 514 killed in combat action. The US Coast Guard was part of the Armed Forces which fought in all theaters, including invading Normandy. Several of them were awarded citations and decorated for valor. Some of their names are listed below.

Founded by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton as the Revenue Cutter Service on 4 August 1790, it lays claim to being the United States' oldest continuous seagoing service. As of August 2009, the Coast Guard had approximately 42,000 men and women on active duty, 7,500 reservists, 30,000 auxiliarists, and 7,700 full-time civilian employees. Historical links of websites are at the very bottom.

The Coast Guard's legal authority differs from the other four armed services, since it may enforce laws on U. S. civilians at anytime (14USC89), and is not limited by Posse Comitatus Act. It operates simultaneously under Title 10 of the United States Code and its other organic authorities, e.g., Titles 6, 14, 19, 33, 46, etc. Because of its legal authority, the Coast Guard can conduct military operations under the Department of Defense or directly for the President in accordance with Title 14 USC 13.

The Coast Guard's enduring roles are Maritime Safety, Maritime Security, and Maritime Stewardship. To carry out those roles the Coast Guard has eleven statutory missions as defined in 6 U.S.C. § 468.

The Coast Guard motto is "Semper Paratus", Latin for "Always Ready" or "Always Prepared".

Selected combat award citations of Coast Guardsmen decorated for valor under fire during the Normandy Invasion

Samuel W. Allison, Silver Star
Lieutenant Samuel W. Allison was awarded the Silver Star: "For conspicuous gallantry in action as Commanding Officer of LCI(L) 326 during amphibious landings on the French coast June 6, 1944. Displaying superb seamanship and dauntless courage, Lieutenant Allison successfully landed units of the Army, then stood off the beach for salvage duty. Realizing that the services of a control boat were urgently needed, he volunteered for this assignment and, in the face of concentrated shell fire and constant threat of exploding mines, effectively directed boat traffic throughout the remainder of the initial assault."

George C. Clark, British Distinguished Service Cross
Lieutenant George C. Clark was awarded the British Distinguished Service Cross. His citation reads: "During the landing of commandos at Quistreham by LCI (S) on June 6, 1944, Lieut. Clark's cutter was detailed to act as escort to LCI(S) HM LCI(S) 524 on clearing the beach after landing troops received a direct hit and blew up in a sheet of flames leaving a mass of blazing Octane petrol on the water. Although his cutter burned Octane petrol, he did not hesitate to steer his craft into the flames and rescue the commanding officer and some of his men."

Gene R. Gislason, Silver Star
Lieutenant Gene R. Gislason was awarded the Silver Star: "For outstanding heroism as Commanding Officer of the USS LCI (L) 94, while landing assault troops in Normandy June 6, 1944. He successfully directed his ship through numerous beach obstacles to the proper beach, discharged his troops and retracted while his ship was seriously damaged from heavy enemy fire. Ship's communications, engine telegraph and electric steering were disabled by direct hits on the pilothouse which killed three crewmen, and one screw and shaft were rendered inoperative by beach obstacles. By his coolness under fire and excellent seamanship, Lieutenant Gislason overcame these difficulties and brought his ship off the beach on hand steering and one screw. He later supervised repairs and in four hours enabled the LCI (L) to remain operative in the assault area for three weeks."

Coit T. Hendley, Silver Star
Lieutenant, junior grade Coit Hendley was awarded the Silver Star: "For heroism as Commanding Officer of the USS LCI (L) 85 while landing assault troops in Normandy, France, June 6, 1944. Lieutenant Hendley successfully landed his troops despite the mining of his vessel, fire in three compartments and a concentration of enemy fire while unloading. His courage and seamanship in directing repairs and retracting from the beach resulted in saving the lives of many wounded aboard."

George F. Hutchinson, Silver Star
Lieutenant, junior grade George F. Hutchinson was awarded the Silver Star: "For gallantry in action against the enemy as Commanding Officer of the USS LCI (L) 83 while landing assault troops in Normandy, France, June 6, 1944. Lieutenant Hutchinson directed his ship to the beach through heavily mined obstacle while under heavy enemy fire that caused numerous Army casualties, successfully unloaded troops after the ship was mined and remained with the ship effecting repairs that enabled it to come off the beach on the next tide."

Miles H. Imlay, Silver Star
Captain Miles H. Imlay was awarded the Silver Star: "For conspicuous gallantry as Deputy Commander of an Assault Group participating in the initial invasion on the coast of France, June 6, 1944. Undaunted by heavy enemy fire, Captain Imlay courageously took station close to the shore on the early morning of D-Day and, throughout the most bitter period of the fighting, coolly and promptly made spot decisions on the reorganization, grouping and dispatching of craft to the beach, subsequently relieving the Task Group Commander of his duties when he withdrew his transport from the assault area. Immediately thereafter, he was placed in charge of operations afloat as assistant to the Naval Officer in Charge of one of the beaches and, discharging the duties of this responsibility with distinctive professional ability, contributed essentially to the rapid clearing of the backlog of ships."

Note: he also earned the Legion of Merit for his actions at the invasion of Sicily and a gold star in lieu of a second Legion of Merit for his role during the invasion of Salerno, Italy.

Gene E. Oxley, Silver Star
Seaman 1/c Gene E. Oxley was awarded the Silver Star: "For gallantry while on the USS LCI(L)-85 during the assault on the coast of France June 6, 1944, and for extraordinary courage in volunteering and twice taking a line ashore, in the face of heavy machine gun and shell fire, in order to assist troops unloading from the ship to the beach through chest deep water."

Robert M. Salmon, Silver Star
Lieutenant Robert M. Salmon was awarded the Silver Star: "For gallantry as commanding officer of a U.S. LCI (L) while landing assault troops in Normandy, France, June 6, 1944. He pressed the landing of troops despite the mining of his vessel, a serious fire forward and heavy enemy gunfire. He supervised the unloading of troops, directed the fire fighting despite the loss of proper equipment and exhibiting courage of a high degree remained with the ship until it was impossible to control the progress of the fire until it was impossible to control the progress of the fire and it was necessary to abandon ship over the stern. After abandoning he directed a party searching for fire fighting equipment and subsequently fought the fire on another LCI (L) and assisted her commanding officer until she was abandoned."

William F. Trump, Silver Star
Motor Machinist's Mate 1/c William F. Trump was awarded the Silver Star: "For gallantry and intrepidity in action in the assault phase of an LCI (L) which landed troops in the face of severe enemy fire and despite a profusion of beach obstacles on the coast of France June 6, 1944. Having volunteered for the assignment he waded between the heavily mined beach obstacles and dragged an anchor and anchor-line to shallow water, thereby providing a safety line for troops to follow."

Aden C. Unger, Silver Star
Commander Aden C. Unger was awarded the Silver Star: "For outstanding services as a deputy assault group commander in the assault on the coast of France, June 6, 1944. He took his station close to the beach under heavy enemy fire on the day of the assault and remained under fire during the most bitter period of the fighting, when with great coolness he made decisions on the spot, reorganized, grouped and dispatched craft to the beach, and made the weight of his judgment felt in a manner which contributed materially to the success of the operation."

Arend Vyn, Jr., Silver Star
Lieutenant junior grade Arend Vyn was awarded the Silver Star: "For gallantry in action as Commanding Officer of USS LCI 91 in the assault on the coast of France June 6 1944. Lt (jg) Vyn beached his ship and discharged the Army elements therein in the face of murderous fire and a labyrinth of obstacles and mines. In spite of the fact that his ship was mined and repeatedly struck by artillery fire and small-arms fire, he continued to land the army load in the face of certain loss of his ship. His determination to put the Army ashore was in keeping with the highest traditions of the offensive spirit of the United States Naval Service."

Quentin R. Walsh, Navy Cross
Lieutenant Commander (later Captain) Quentin R. Walsh was a member of the Logistics and Planning Section, US Naval Forces during World War II. Prior to the Normandy invasion, he planned the occupation and operation of the ports that were to be captured from the Germans, including Cherbourg. He was awarded the Navy Cross for: "Heroism as Commanding Officer of a U.S. Naval party reconnoitering the naval facilities and naval arsenal at Cherbourg June 26 and 27, 1944. While in command of a reconnaissance party, Commander Walsh entered the port of Cherbourg and penetrated the eastern half of the city, engaging in street fighting with the enemy. He accepted the surrender and disarmed 400 of the enemy force at the naval arsenal and later received unconditional surrender of 350 enemy troops and, at the same time, released 52 captured U.S. Army paratroopers."

Robert G. Ward, Silver Star
Seaman 1/c Robert G. Ward was awarded the Silver Star: "For conspicuous gallantry in action during the landing operations against the enemy on Cotentin Peninsula, France, June 6, 1944. While acting as coxswain of a landing craft in the first wave, Ward successfully landed his troop personnel despite enemy opposition. Upon retracting from the beach he observed the stranded crews from two other landing craft whose boats had been destroyed by enemy mortar fire. Ward returned to the beach, took off both crews despite continued shelling, and returned safely with them to his ship."

Historical links of U. S. Coast Guard websites: Go to Google and click on each one.

14 USC 89 - Sec. 89. Law enforcement - U.S. Code - Title 14: Coast ...

Posse Comitatus Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

US Coast Guard Home www.uscg.mil/

U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center www.navcen.uscg.gov/ News, updates and advisories. Links to local US Coast Guards sites. Downloadable publications.

2011-10-01T10:16:00.001-06:00

The Constitution of the
United States of America

A few great Americans living in the 1700s worked very hard writing a Constitution for our new country, and only a few months later, their mission was accomplished. This document has guided the United States in, war and peace, for more than 200 years. Many Americans have never taken the time to read it and many more don’t have a clue how it was written and established.

I did the research and typed it with two fingers, I hope you will take a few minutes and read how it happened. You will be a better American if you do. It would be difficult to find these high caliber men today that would be willing to work on something like they did. I think some could be found in The Few, The Proud, The Marines. Semper Fidelis <> Always Faithful.

I have a small pocketsize booklet of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. You can get one for yourself at no charge by requesting one through your United States Congressman. If you live in the 1st District of Florida, call or write to Representative Jeff Miller’s office in Pensacola.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION

It is often asked how 55 men could have assembled in 1787 and in less than four months writes a Constitution that has lasted 224 years. John Adams said, “The deliberate union of so great and various a people in such a place is, without all partiality or prejudice, if not the greatest exertion of human understanding, the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen.”

They were unique in as much as they had spent considerable time studying government and political theory and history. They had many years of service in their respective states and some had in fact been involved in drafting their own state constitutions. They were probably the most knowledgeable men in the United States.

May 25, 1787: OPENING OF THE CONSTITUTION COMVENTION.

By May 25, a quorum of delegates from seven states had arrived in Philadelphia for the Convention. Ultimately, representatives from all the states but Rhode Island attend. Of the 55 participants, over half were lawyers, and 29 attended college. The distinguished public figures included George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, George Mason, Gouverneur Morris, James Wilson, Roger Sherman and Elbridge Gerry.

May 29, 1787: VIRGINIA PLAN PROPOSED.
On the fifth day of the meeting, Edmund Randolph, a delegate from Virginia, offers 15 resolutions making up the “Virginia Plan” of Union rather than amending the Articles of Confederation, the proposal describes completely new organization of government, including a bicameral (upper and lower house) legislature which represents the states proportionately, with the lower house elected by the people and the upper house chosen by the lower body from nominees proposed by the state legislature; an executive chosen by the legislature; a judiciary branch; and a council composed of the executive and members of the judiciary branch with a veto over legislative enactments.

June 15, 1787: NEW JERSEY PLAN PROPOSED.
Displeased by Randolph’s plan, which placed the smaller states in a disadvantageous position, William Peterson proposes instead only to modify the Articles of confederation. The New Jersey plan gives Congress power to tax and to regulate foreign and interstate commerce and establishes a plural executive (without veto power) and a supreme court.

June 19, 1787: After debating all the proposals, the Convention decides not merely to amend the Articles of Confederation but to devise a new national government. The question of equal versus proportional representation by states in the legislature now becomes the focus of the debate.

June 21, 1787: The Convention adopts a two-year term for representatives.

June 26, 1887: The Convention adopts a six-year term for Senators.

August 6, 1787: The five-man committee appointed to draft a constitution based upon 23 “fundamental resolutions” drawn up by the convention between July 19 and July 26 submits its documents, which contain 23 articles.

August 6-September 10, 1787: THE GREAT DEBATE. The Convention debates the draft constitution.

August 16, 1787: The Convention grants to Congress the right to regulate foreign trade and interstate commerce.

August 25, 1787: The Convention agrees to prohibit Congress from banning foreign slave trade for twenty years.

September 6, 1787: The Convention adopts a four-year term for the President.

September 8, 1787: A five-man committee, comprising William Samuel Johnson (chair), Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Rufus King and Gouverneur Morris, is appointed to prepare the final draft.

September 12, 1787: The committee submits the draft, penned primarily by Gouverneur Morris, to the Convention.

September 13-15, 1787: The Convention examines the draft clause by clause and makes few changes.

September 17, 1787: All twelve state delegations vote approval of the document. Thirty-nine of the forty-two delegates present sign the engrossed copy, and a letter of transmittal to Congress is drafted. The Convention formally adjourns.

September 20, 1787: Congress receives the proposed Constitution.

Followed was the Bill of Rights, which are the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution, and now we have 27 Amendments.

God Bless America and God Bless the United States Constitution of the United States.

2011-09-29T09:30:00.001-06:00

Anthony Gale
U.S. Marine Corps
Fourth Commandant
3 March 1819 - 16 October 1820

Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Gale, fourth Commandant of the Marine Corps and the only one ever fired, was born in Dublin, Ireland, on 17 September 1782. Fewer records survive concerning him than any other Commandant but it is known that he was commissioned a second lieutenant on 2 September 1798. Thereafter he fought, in fairly quick succession, the French, the Barbary pirates, the British, and one of his Navy mess-mates. The last encounter, involving an affront to the Corps, brought about the naval officer's sudden demise and Commandant William Burrow's approval for Gale?s defense of his Corps' honor.

Unfortunately for him, increasing rank brought other difficulties not resolved so directly. In 1815, while commanding at Philadelphia, he fell out with Commandant Franklin Wharton over construction of barracks. A court of inquiry cleared him, but he was banished to a less desirable post, where he nursed a feeling of persecution and resumed dueling - this time with John Barleycorn.

As a consequence of these and other alleged shortcomings, Capt. Gale, although next senior at the time of Wharton's death, had to battle for the job. Capt. Archibald Henderson, second in line, was characteristically blunt in assessing Capt. Gale's qualifications, or lack of them, to the Secretary of the Navy. After a court of inquiry, which exonerated him, Capt. Gale, with 21 years of service, became Lieutenant Colonel Commandant 3 March 1819. By then, the Corps had been without a leader for six months.

Soon came troubles with Navy Secretary Smith Thompson, who frequently countermanded LtCol Gale's orders in a humiliating manner. Finally, LtCol Gale courageously submitted a letter analyzing the proper division of function between himself and the Secretary, and respectfully pointed out the impossibility of his position. This official reaction to infringements of his authority, he paralleled by unofficial retreats to alcohol. Three weeks later (18 September 1820) he was under arrest, charged with offenses of alcoholic and related nature. By 8 October 1820, the court had found him guilty, the President had approved, and LtCol Gale was removed from office and the Marine Corps.

From Washington, Gale went first to Philadelphia where he spent several months in hospitals, then took up residence in Kentucky. Armed with proof that he had been under the strain of temporary mental derangement while Commandant, he spent 15 years attempting to have his court-martial decision reversed. Eventually, in 1835, the government partially cleared him and awarded him a stipend of $15 a month which was later increased to $25 and continued until his death in 1843 in Stanford, Lincoln County, Kentucky.

2011-09-27T04:50:00.001-06:00

Pvt. France Silva
U. S. Marine Corps

Private France Silva (May 8, 1876 - April 10, 1951) born in Hayward, California, was the first Marine of Mexican-American and Hispanic heritage to receive the Medal of Honor. He received the Medal of Honor for his meritorious conduct in China during the Boxer Rebellion.

Medal of Honor action

In 1900, Private France Silva was a member of the Legation Guards (Marines) under the command of Captain Newt Hall, aboard the USS Newark. The USS Newark was a United States Navy protected cruiser, the first modern cruiser in the U.S. fleet. On May 20, 1900, the Newark sailed for China to help land allied troops to assist civilians within the legations which came under siege by the Boxers at Peking. Arriving Tientsin on May 22.

Silva joined the Marine Corps on September 12, 1899, in San Francisco and attended Boot Camp at Mare Island. He was assigned to the U.S. Flag Ship Newark where Private Daniel Joseph Daly (future double Medal of Honor recipient) was already a member. The Newark soon headed to the Philippines, to take part in the Spanish-American War, but were then sent to Japan to prepare for a landing at Taku, Tientsen and Peking. They arrived in Peking on May 31 before the Boxers closed the city off from the world.

As Captains John T. Meyers and Newt Hall, USMC, - under the command of Captain Bowman McCalla, USN, in the lead position of the allies, the all European Brass Band played, "It'll be a hot time in the old town tonight." They had their last really good meal for a couple of months but also immediately posted guard. Captain Meyers had given the command, "Fix, Bayonets!" just before their approach. They double timed the last three-hundred yards and the crowd cheered.

Later, when they entered the Forbidden City of Peking, Edwin Conger, the lead U.S. Diplomat (and former Army officer) said to Meyers, "Thank God you are here. Now we are safe."

On June 19, 1900, the 1st Regiment (Marines) under Major Littleton Waller, USMC, attempted to take the city of Tientsin and failed. Then on June 23, the Regiment, under the command of Major Waller, was able to enter Tientsin in their second attempt and force the Chinese forces to retreat to Peking. Private France Silva, several other Marines and two sailors, Navy Seamen Axel Westermark and Chief Machinist Emil Peterson earned the Medal of Honor in their defense of the civilian compound (legation) at Peking. They defended the walled city from June 28 until the fall of the city which occurred on August 17.

In accordance to a newspaper article:

"The USS Newark placed ashore a contingent of Marine and three bluejackets (sailors) as a legation guard. These men and later another detachment of Marines, soldiers and sailors joined the troops of other western countries and Japan in the defense of other Peking legations against the Boxers until the arrival of the Allied Forces in August."

According to the Journal of Pvt. Oscar J. Upham, USMC, (Upham called his journal the "Siege of Peking") on July 1, "Pvt. Silva of the Newark Guard (detachment) volunteered to go and assist them (others on the Tartar Wall) and was hit in the arm making a very bad wound." Several others had been seriously wounded and some killed during this skirmish. According to documents in the National Archives and Records Administration the bullet entered Pvt. Silva's left elbow and bounced off his sternum. He was medically discharged on January 6, 1901 at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, CA. On December 31, 1901, he was awarded the Medal of Honor, also at Mare Island (Medal of Honor Society). The Medal of Honor Society stated recently (November 2008) that the Medal of Honor was mailed to him, but there is no official information about which official presented at mare Island.

Captain Newt Hall, USMC, was Pvt. Silva's Commanding Officer aboard the Newark. Hall retired as a Colonel and many years later (1930's) wrote an account of the Siege of Peking. Of all the Marines under his charge he noted that Silva's was the "most interesting." Even though Pvt. Silva was badly injured (he couldn't hold his rifle because his elbow had taken the bullet and it passed through his arm and bounced off his sternum), he and several other Marines attempted to return to the Wall for action. Captain Hall ordered them back to (Sick Bay).

Silva refused telling the captain that if he would take Silva's rifle and the captain give him his pistol, he said, "I can take of myself." Silva remained on duty for at least a day relieving Marines and others on the Wall giving them a "much needed rest."

Pvt. Silva's immediate Commanding Officer was Capt. Newt Hall. Hall was under the command of Capt. John T. Myers. Myer's and his detachment were on the USS Oregon (Upham Journal).

Medal of Honor citation

SILVA, FRANCE
Private, U.S. Marine Corps
July 19, 1901

G.O. Navy Department, No.55

In the presence of the enemy during the action at Peking, China, June 28, to August 17, 1900. Throughout this period, Silva distinguished himself by meritorious conduct.

Postscript

After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Silva reported that he lost all of his papers and his Medal of Honor, but another was mailed to him. He had filed a disability claim with the Department of Veterans Affairs. France Silva died on April 10, 1951 and is buried in Sunset Hill Cemetery in Corning, California.

Silva and Dan Daly were good friends on the Newark and during the Siege of Peking.

2011-09-25T05:33:00.005-06:00

American Wars

In World War II, the United States had approximately 16.5 million men and women in uniform. Of these about 2 percent were killed. In World War II, the US Marines had approximately 669 thousand men and women in uniform. Of these about 3-1/2 percent were killed. In World War I, 3 percent of US Marine participants were killed.

In the Korean War 424,000 US Marines participanted and 4,500 were killed. In the Vietnam War 1.6 percent of US Marine participants were killed. What is my point?

The POWs in the Pacific faced death and disease on a daily basis for almost 4 years. They died at a higher casualty rate than any war of the last two centuries. Since returning home they have died at a rate 3 times that of POWs from the European Theater of Operations. Yet many of them came away from that experience with a sense of shame, with a feeling they had not done enough.

The Japanese constantly told them they did not deserve to live because they had surrendered. Try to find mention of them in history books, especially the North China Marines. Our government did little if anything to help them adjust when they came home. They did not receive their full back pay until 57 years after they returned home, and then in 1942 dollars and with no interest. (Feb 2010 - Now evidence has arisen they were not given the promotions they were actually due.) Interest was finally paid in 2007-to surviving POWs or their living spouses, only 17 North China Marines were still living.

If they made a career out of the Marines and retired after 20 years, their disability pay is subtracted from their retirement pay. This issue is still not completely rectified. Many of them were awarded a Purple Heart on their return to the states. In most cases that award was not entered into their records-or was deleted.

Today officials drag their feet on paperwork submitted for those Purple Hearts. In 2004 one North China Marine was recommended for a Medal of Honor for his actions in 1942. There was no action on that recommendation for a full year after it was submitted by a retired Marine general who was a witness to the event. Then the official finding was that since no medal had been awarded at the end of the war there would be none awarded now. Further paperwork was submitted as of October 2007. As of February 2010 there was still no action.

So it is easy to see how these former prisoners might feel the way they do. But there should be no shame. There should be a sense of having served their fellow Americans in a manner few others have, at a cost few others have paid. There should be pride.

These men should be seen as examples of what it truly means to be an American.

2011-09-18T01:31:00.001-06:00

Swagger stick
Was part of my Marine Corps uniform

A swagger stick is shorter than a staff or cane, and is usually made from rattan. Most Marines today have never heard of this stick that the Few, the Proud, the Marines, carried in their hands.

History

Originally, the swagger stick was a functional implement used to direct military drill and manoeuvres, or to administer physical punishment. In the Roman army, a short vine wood staff called a vitis was carried and used for corporal punishment by Centurions (often career soldiers), but not by higher officers (often from the socio-political elite). Nowadays it is more often a traditional visual attribute. Swagger sticks are most familiarly carried by military officers or more senior non-commissioned officers. They are also often carried by officers in police and paramilitary forces.

United Kingdom armed forces

In the British Army and other militaries following the Commonwealth traditions, commissioned officers carry swagger sticks when in formal uniform as a symbol of rank. Warrant Officers and Senior NCOs carry longer pace sticks or regimental sticks instead, although a Regimental Sergeant Major may be seen sporting a swagger stick. British swagger sticks are often topped with a silver cap, bearing regimental insignia. A swagger stick remains an essential part of an officer's equipment and they are supplied by traditional British military tailors such as Gieves & Hawkes and Goldings. Cavalry officers will often carry a riding crop rather than a swagger stick, in deference to their mounted traditions.

United States armed forces

Swagger sticks were once in vogue in the United States Marine Corps, starting as an informal accessory carried by officers in the late 19th century. In 1915, it gained official approval as recruiters were encouraged to carry them to improve public image. This tradition grew when Marines deployed for World War I encountered European officers carrying swagger sticks, leading to an entry in the uniform regulations in 1922 authorizing enlisted Marines to carry them as well. The usage died down in the 1930s and 40s, excepting China Marines, and returned in vogue when a 1952 regulation encouraging them; reaching a peak from 1956 to 1960, when Commandant Randolph M. Pate encouraged use. While stressing the need for uniforms to be simple and rugged, with no need for gimmicks and gadgets, General Pate commented:

There is one item of equipment about which I have a definite opinion. It is the swagger stick. It shall remain an optional item of interference. If you feel the need of it, carry it.

However, his successor, David M. Shoup, quickly discouraged their use:

..."the swagger stick symbolized elitist affectation, and it reminded him of some unpleasant experiences he had had in China.” He had seen British officers toss money at Chinese men and then strike them with their swagger sticks as they picked up the coins off the ground. Few Marines carried the swagger stick after that.

Few, if any, contemporary officers feel the need to carry a swagger stick, and it has no official sanction in any branch.

General George S. Patton carried a swagger stick throughout World War II; however his contained a concealed blade, similar to a Victorian gentleman's sword cane.

General William J. Livsey, who was the Commanding General of the Eighth United States Army in South Korea from 1984 to 1987 publicly carried a swagger stick that was carved from wood collected at the Korean Demilitarized Zone Axe Murder Incident poplar tree.

Other Use

Many Military Bands, especially in Infantry Regiment, use a pace stick in lieu of a band mace for the Drum Major. Is is also used by male tour guides at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Florida, where its purpose is to give male tour guides something to hold and use to direct guests' attention to, while female tour guides use a riding crop.

2011-09-12T05:23:00.003-06:00

Ed McCourt

United States Marine Corps

Author: Richard Botkin

Summer 1953 was a different time in Marine Corps history. It was "old Corps," really old Corps. Old Corps in ways even today's toughest, most grizzled veterans would accept as old Corps.

It was almost "other worldly" and indescribably more magnificent. Dan Daly and Smedley Butler were gone, but in the summer of 1953 a peppering of gents in the ranks had known and served with them. Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller remained on active duty. Others, thousands really, had campaigned at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and again in Korea at Inchon and the Chosin Reservoir. There were so many of them on active duty that they were almost common in an uncommon way.

By 1953, they were still young by most measures - except for those experiences. And that was and is the draw of the Corps: to be a part of something meaningful and manly and dignified.

The Marine Corps always has been a sublimating force for young men who might have gone astray and who might have used their youthful exuberance and energy in socially unacceptable ways. They were the ones who might have turned left when told to go right.

There is something mystical, something not quite definable that draws someone to the ways of the Corps. Like a narcotic, once injected it can control the soul, absorbing a person in ways that never can be fully understood or appreciated from the outside. For most, once the eagle, globe and anchor has been earned, there is no divorce, no full recovery. The Corps is all-consuming, and most go willingly, like a moth to a flame, like sheep to slaughter.

Little in Ed McCourt's initial pedigree suggested that he would amount to much. His father had done time in prison. His stepfather had done time in prison. Both were deserters from the U.S. Army. He had a cousin, also an Army deserter, who did time in Sing Sing for armed robbery.

Growing up in one of the toughest parts of Chicago, by the time he was 13, Ed McCourt had managed to obtain a license to drive the Uptown Supermarket's meat truck. He dealt with thugs and mafia types near his home on Clark Street, three doors north of Division. He left that job and at 15, in 1951, was managing a parking lot on Lake Street and Wacker Drive, earning the princely sum of $135 per week (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator that is the equivalent of $1,132 in 2010 dollars). His salary supported his extended and horribly dysfunctional family.

McCourt was unable to finish ninth grade because he had to support his mother, stepbrothers and sisters. Life in the bowery offered small attraction. Living across the street from the Foremost Theater and the Gold Coast Amusement Center, McCourt could count seven bars and pubs on his block alone. Even though the money was good, he tired of waiting to be "old enough" for something more suited to his need for purpose and direction.

Well before his 16th birthday, McCourt had hatched a plan of escape from his skid-row existence. Retrieving his baptismal certificate from the few records his mother kept, he began the process of altering his date of birth. It took seven attempts before he was satisfied that the copies appeared legitimate. He canvassed all the services - first the Air Force and then the Navy, followed by the Army. Once confident those recruiters were fooled by the forgeries, he made his run on the Marines. Bang. Success.

Convinced McCourt was about to turn 18, the recruiters did not even need his mother's approval. So, by the time he was barely 16, Ed McCourt was boot camp bound. Everything was cool. On the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego rifle range, he was the high shooter for his entire recruit series and was among the few recruits to be meritoriously promoted to private first class due to his superior performance. He was dialed in, good-to-go and preparing for combat duty in Korea.

Had he been assigned to a different military occupational specialty, the Corps never might have discovered the deception, but at that time those in certain aspects of artillery required a security clearance. During that background investigation, Private First Class McCourt's true date of birth was uncovered. As a result, after nine months and 16 days, PFC McCourt, minority discharge under honorable conditions in hand, was released from active duty with very little fanfare.

Figuratively bloodied but certainly unbowed, Ed McCourt did not let that discharge interrupt his appointment with destiny. At age 17, he informed his mom that he was going back in the Corps as soon as he was 18 with or without her consent. So why not make it 17 since a person can join the military at that age with parental consent? The next time he went in, it would be for good.

Able to reenlist legally in 1953 at 17 and keep his former rank, PFC McCourt hit the deck with all cylinders firing fully. Although disappointed that he had missed the action in Korea, he had little time to despair. Ed McCourt was now a round peg in a round hole, the kid in the candy store, the young warrior monk seeking enlightenment. He was home. The Corps was his family, his tribe. The brothers and the father he never had known surrounded him, challenged him, embraced and uplifted him. Good things began to compound.

In assignment after assignment McCourt gained rank, education, experience and confidence. Behavioral scientists might have observed that he had fulfilled Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. The Corps became his self-actualization. An outsider might have thought that if he had cut Ed McCourt, he would have bled Marine Corps green.

The Corps can be a demanding and jealous mistress, consuming and absorbing one's total passion, leaving little room or consideration for others. This love affair often comes at a high price, sometimes without reciprocity. During war the price may be a man's own life or those of cherished comrades. For others, the love affair leads not to "happily ever after, " but to marriages or families that lack a man's full devotion. Some even buy into the adage that " if the Corps wanted you to have a wife, they'd have issued you one." For a length of time, Ed McCourt would fall for that line.

As America was leaving her unsatisfactory Korean experience behind and as her tastes were transitioning from Perry Como and Rosemary Clooney to Bill Haley and the Comets, McCourt was in the Band of Brothers. His lifestyle and experience would absorb and consume him 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Assuming his duties as an infantryman and later as a recon Marine, in the next 11 years, Ed McCourt would serve at seven different duty stations, not including time spent at sea or the myriad of military schools attended. Along the way he picked up a nickname "Machete Eddie" which he would use with panache and aplomb. When he was not improving his fighting or reconnaissance skills at schools or in training for the next war, Machete Eddie played on various varsity football teams the Corps maintained at its major bases. In between, he found time to get married twice.

Following a successful tour on recruiting duty, Staff Sergeant McCourt was transferred back to the Fleet Marine Force in mid-1964. Deployed to Okinawa, his battalion spent time on board amphibious ships floating off the coasts of Thailand and Vietnam. In April 1965, 2d Battalion, Third Marine Regiment was part of the buildup of leathernecks going ashore at Da Nang to begin expanded operations against the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Viet Cong (VC).

Due to his extensive training and skills as a troop leader, SSgt McCourt served as a rifle platoon leader, a job normally given only to commissioned officers. For six months, McCourt led the men of "Fox" Company's 1st Platoon through the jungles, swamps and rice paddies. It was the perfect prelude and workup for an even more demanding second tour.

Returning Stateside in January 1966, McCourt endured the drudgery of what appeared bland after the intensity of combat. Assigned as a senior instructor to the rifle ranges at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., he was marking time. Like any good Marine, he did the job he was given. At least he was training Marines, passing on the things he had learned.

With the American effort in Vietnam increasing, promotions came more quickly. In the early afternoon of 14 July 1966, a teletype message proclaimed his selection for promotion to gunnery sergeant. Two hours later, before he could finish celebrating, another message announced his selection for promotion to second lieutenant.

It was difficult to enjoy the relative opulence of sunny Southern California knowing his friends were fighting and dying in Southeast Asia. The next day 2dLt McCourt went to his commanding officer and requested orders for Vietnam. Three weeks later he was back in I Corps, leading Marines in combat.

Between the time 2dLt McCourt had concluded his first Vietnam tour and he returned for his second, the nature and intensity of the ground combat prosecuted by American Marines had changed dramatically. Before, most of the action had been against local VC, and contact with main force NVA regulars had been a rarity. By early 1967, the Marines were battling the NVA daily, virtually every time they left the wire. The VC were cunning, deceptive and fleeting, while the NVA were far better trained and more formidable than their southern allies. The NVA did not back down from a fight, and the Marines had their hands full.

It was with India Co, 3/3 that Machete Eddie would come into his own as a warrior and troop leader. By the time of his second arrival, the meat grinder of Northern I Corps was consuming Marines, small-unit leaders in particular, at a horrifyingly rapid rate. A problem common for all the 3dMarDiv infantry battalions operating in Northern I Corps was that constituent rifle companies and platoons were stretched thinly and always were engaged. Turnover of key personnel was a constant challenge.

Second Lt McCourt quickly made a name for himself in 3/3. He seemed bred for the moment. He was a warrior, a gunfighter, the go-to guy when the stuff hit the fan, as things were doing with increasing frequency.

When the battalion went to the field as a complete unit, his platoon was usually on point. His men rallied to him. He loved his men with the same tough-love leadership he had felt throughout his Marine Corps experience. His feelings were reciprocated. His leadership reflected their reasons for joining the Corps rather than some other branch of service. They were confident he would do nothing foolish, nothing reckless and that he would be with them in every firefight at the precise point of contact.

Shortly after McCourt's arrival for his second tour, 3/3’s Lima Co was taken over by John Ripley, a young captain. The gentleman from Virginia quickly became known for his aggressiveness and tactical savvy. His Marines, after particularly difficult action during March 1967, would be called by "Ripley's Raiders," a name that still sets them apart.

The urbane and genteel John Walter Ripley, whom some would call a 20th-century Stonewall Jackson and who would become more famous for his 1972 heroics in destroying the Dong Ha bridge and seriously dulling the NVA offensive, was in most ways as different from Machete Eddie as the East is from the West. A friendship that transcended their different backgrounds quickly developed: a brother-to-brother kinship made possible only by their shared circumstances and devotion to the Corps that would last until Ripley's untimely death in 2008. (McCourt still mourns deeply for his friend, who believed McCourt was the only man in Marine Corps history to reenlist at 17.

Machete Eddie called Ripley "an NVA magnet." McCourt and his men were convinced that to gain contact with the enemy, all they had to do was to operate with Lima Co. Although McCourt would be awarded medals for valor, including the Silver Star and Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm (the Vietnamese equivalent to our Silver Star), the praise and endorsements from John Ripley were more important.

Ripley felt his junior mate had "written the book on leadership in combat." Ripley's Raiders affirmed his thoughts, on more than a few occasions, when they exclaimed to their "skipper": "Sir, Lieutenant McCourt is on our flank. We are secure!"

All Marines have an acute understanding for the quality of leadership, especially in combat. It distills the necessary from the trivial, condenses all that is vital down to the few small issues that make the difference between life or death, victory or defeat.

An officer might coast for a while on personality or puffery; he even might convince superiors he is, in fact, the Second Coming. However, to those in his charge there are only actions and results. No amount of cosmetics or breast-beating can conceal the warts and imperfections of actual performance.

The young Marines, the squad leaders, the fire-team leaders, the guys humping mortar rounds and radios all know the truth. They suffer the poor decisions or survive the good ones. They are judge and jury. They are the ultimate customers of a combat leader's ability.

The Marines of India Co's 1st Plt were no different. Properly motivated and led, they would attempt anything. Machete Eddie's Marines would do just about anything for him because they knew he would be out front doing it with them.

A poem, "The Ballad of Fort McCourt," composed and given to McCourt by two of his Marines in November 1966, speaks in a simple, heartfelt way to that need for strong leadership and camaraderie. Taken out of context, it might seem hokey and homespun, almost obsequious, but the verse was not composed by brown-nosing boys.

By the time it was written, co-authors Lance Corporal Michael Baronowski and LCpl Tim Duffy were seasoned veterans. Baronowski, who had only one month left on his tour, was killed walking point the day after the two close buddies completed their masterpiece. Duffy would go on to serve in the combined-action program and be known for doing good things. Their poem is more precious to McCourt than medals and any other accolades.

Author's note: Capt Ed McCourt retired from active duty in 1973 and spent another 25 years in law enforcement and high-risk security before his second retirement in 1997. In 1990, he married for the final time, and the third try was the charm. Like so many Marines, he married well, and he married up. His wife, Sue, has an MBA as well as a doctorate in health care administration. The couple lives in South Texas. Machete Eddie continues to instruct in shooting and spends a great deal of time in contact with his extensive and impressive list of old Corps Marine pals.

The Ballad of Fort McCourt
We wander through the jungles of Vietnam all day.
We find the Viet Cong dug in and chase them all away.
You'll find no finer fighting men of any name or sort.
You'll always find us ready here defending Fort McCourt.
He is the bravest man of all and that is plain to see.
And we're his men of 1st Platoon of "India," 3/3.
He's taught us all to be Marines of very rugged sort.
We're proud to be here fighting beside Lt Ed McCourt.
The first time here he learned the tricks to hunt the VC down.
He's back again and meaner yet the second time around.
He leads the finest fighting men in Marine Corps infantry.
And we're the fighting 1st Platoon of "India," 3/3.
We patrol all day and watch all night for that's the way he planned.
And where we find the Viet Cong that's where we'll make our stand.
And when you hear about us 'twill be a good report.
For here we are and here we'll stay on top of Fort McCourt.
Although he works us very hard, he never is unfair.
He makes us feel that we're the best Marines found anywhere.
You'll never find morale as high at any other fort.
There is no finer leader than Lt Ed McCourt.
~LCpl Michael Baronowski and LCpl Tim Duffy

2011-09-07T04:36:00.001-06:00

Leslie E. Brown
United States Marine Corps

First Marine to fly a jet in combat <> Korean War, Sept. 9, 1950.

Lieutenant General Leslie E. Brown (7 July 1920-12 September 1997) was a United States Marine Corps aviator who served in combat in World War II, Vietnam, and Korea. As a combat pilot, he earned many aviation "firsts". He retired from the Marine Corps in 1978 after 38 years of active duty service.

Biography

Leslie Brown was born on 7 July 1920 in Washington state. He graduated from high school in 1938 and attended Compton College in California prior to enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1940.

Brown received a field commission during World War II while serving as a member of the 2nd Marine Division in the Pacific.

He had extensive combat and command experience in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. He participated in four major landings in the Pacific. In 1946, he completed flight training and qualified in most types of jets, transports and helicopters that the Marine Corps had in use. While in Korea in 1950, he was the first Marine to fly a jet in combat. In Vietnam, he was the First Wing Operations Officer (G-3), and then commanded a jet attack group (MAG-12) and the attempted attack on the DaNang Airfield at Chu Lai, earning many aviation "firsts".

In 1962, he attended Oklahoma State University where he earned both a Bachelor of Science and a and Bachelor of Arts degree, and also completed graduate studies in Human Resources Management.

He held numerous staff assignments including duty as Secretary to the General Staff and as a Joint Chiefs of Staff Project Officer at Headquarters Marine Corps; Logistics Operations Officer for the Fleet Marine Force, Pacific; Deputy J-3 (Operations) for the United States European Command; Chief of Staff, Headquarters Marine Corps; and his final assignment as Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific.

Brown retired from the Marine Corps on 1 October 1978. He died near Palm Springs, California on 12 September 1997.

Quotes

"Wherever you are or whatever your job, don’t be confused or diverted by false priorities. We have only one mission to perform—that is to fight and win. And, we must do it better than anyone else in the world."

—LtGen Leslie E. Brown

2011-08-29T05:21:00.001-06:00

The Star-Spangled Banner
Posted in The New York Times on August 25, 2011
By ALBIN J. KOWALEWSKI
Kowalewski is a public historian in Washington

It was not easy to select the "Star-Spangled Banner" as America's official national anthem. It did not happen until 1931.

Music was everywhere in the North, it seemed during the summer of 1861. From presidential appearances to Union rallies, everyone was singing - usually emotional versions of "Yankee Doodle" or "Hail, Columbia" or the "Star-Spangled Banner." It's forgotten today, but in 1861 America didn't have an official national anthem; each one of those songs functioned more or less informally as the nation's rallying cry at some point in its history.

The problem was, few could agree which one, if any, was popular enough to stand as the country's official song - at a time when more and more people thought it needed one. In response, a group of Manhattan power brokers - lawyers, politicians, businessmen, scholars, and a former senator and New York governor - who called themselves the National Hymn Committee, decided to find a new, official anthem.

The committee wrote off the three existing contenders immediately: "Yankee Doodle" was "childish," they said. "Hail Columbia" was "pretentious." The "Star-Spangled Banner" was just too hard to sing - indeed, according to the committee's spokesman, Richard Grant White, they found it "to be almost useless."

Library of Congress Richard Grant White, spokesman for the National Hymn Committee.

The committee turned to the literary public for help. From mid-May to early August, it held a contest challenging Yankee poets to compose "a national hymn or popular and patriotic song appealing to the national heart," as George Templeton Strong, a committee member, described it. The competition would be judged blindly, and the committee retained the rights to publish and market the entries, the proceeds of which would go to the local "Patriotic Fund." To the winner, however, the 13 committeemen promised $500 and the thanks of a grateful nation.

Though the hymn committee sought something with lasting appeal - something more than "a war song," it said - it was no coincidence that the competition took place early in the conflict. The "Star-Spangled Banner" was arguably the most-recognizable song in the Union, but in the context of the war it suddenly felt out of place. It dated to the War of 1812 and had ridden the wave of popular nationalism that followed America's second victory over the British. But after nearly two generations of contentious and equivocal compromise over slavery, many northerners were leaving that earlier world behind. Writing a new national anthem seemed a logical next step for a country in the process of reinventing itself. After all, White recalled that summer, following the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter "we all found ourselves side by side with one feeling, one purpose, forgetful of the past, absorbed in the present and the future."

Library of Congress Front cover of a song book of patriotic songs, including "Yankee Doodle," "Star Spangled Banner," "Hail Columbia" and, notably, "The Marseillaise."

It quickly became clear that many northerners shared in the hymn committee's opinions. Within six weeks of the contest's announcement, the committee had received 1,275 entries ("Four or five huge bales of patriotic hymnology," according to Strong) from as far afield as California and even Italy.

Over the next month and a half, the committee - assisted by an organist and choir - met to review the submissions. Its roster was a who's who of Manhattan's upper crust, but never once, it appears, did the full committee meet together. One member, John A. Dix, a former treasury secretary and now Union general, couldn't even attend. He was too busy maintaining law and order from his post at Fort McHenry in Maryland, where, just weeks after missing the hymn committee's first round of judging, he imprisoned Baltimore editor Frank Key Howard on charges of disloyalty. Howard, coincidentally, was the grandson of Francis Scott Key, the author of the "Star-Spangled Banner."

Unlike the committee members, little is known about the musicians and poets who scratched out those thousands of lines of verse. Because the judges promptly discarded most of the submissions, the authors- identities disappeared as well. But what we do know reveals a general cross section of northern society. The participants included the well educated and barely literate, the provincial and the worldly, ministers and musicians, and a middle-aged woman named Julia Ward Howe - who had yet to write her legendary "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Likewise, the few of their poems that do exist convey a range of emotion: vengeance, militancy, confidence and optimism. They had such titles as "Union Forever," "The Ballot-Box," "Freedom's Jubilee," "Liberty's Beacon" and 1861. Many sought divine inspiration, though others offered comic relief. Some championed the war as "freedom's second birth,- while others spoke of finding comfort in the "shades of our forefathers." One imaginative soul even set the Declaration of Independence to rhyme.

The problem was, the committee couldn't agree on a clear winner. But not because there were so many good options - rather, it was because there were hardly any. On Aug. 9, 1861, the hymn committee announced that it couldn't, in all fairness, choose a winner. "Although some of [the songs] have a degree of poetic excellence which will probably place them high in public favor as lyrical compositions," it said in the New York Times, "no one of them is well suited for a National Hymn." Strong was more blunt in private: most poems were "rubbish."

The controversy, however, didn't end there. The criticism from northern literary circles came hard and fast, and many agreed with Harper's Weekly that patriotism couldn't be "made to order." Not to be outdone, the committee itself refused to let the issue die. A few of the poems had been saved, and that fall Richard Grant White published them - good and bad - in the book "National Hymns: How They Are Written and How They Are Not Written, A Lyric and National Study for the Times." The volume was both a meditation on music and nationalism and a clarification of the committee's decision. Strangely enough, many newspapers gave the book rather positive reviews. Like most, the Christian Advocate and Journal appreciated the wartime gallows humor. "The worst [anthems]," it said, "will doubtless be the most entertaining."

Such cynicism didn't last long. Within months, the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" would hit the North, capturing the Union's voice in biblical terms unlike anything the hymn committee could have ever imagined.

The north would continue writing music throughout the war, but when it counted most many Yankees simply fell back on the songs they knew best. Roughly four years after his stint on the hymn committee, George Templeton Strong overheard something remarkable in the streets of New York. Richmond had just fallen to Union forces, and crowds began to fill Wall Street near the offices of the Commercial Advertiser:

Never before did I hear cheering that came straight from the heart. They sang 'Old Hundred,' the Doxology, 'John Brown,' and 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' repeating the last two lines of Key's song over and over, with a massive roar from the crowd and a unanimous wave of hats at the end of each repetition. I think I shall never lose the impression made by this rude, many-voiced chorale. It seemed a revelation of profound national feeling, underlying all our vulgarisms and corruptions, and vouchsafed to us in their very focus and centre, in Wall Street itself.

In 1931, as the Great Depression again tested the country's resolve, the "Star-Spangled Banner" was signed into law as America's official national anthem.
--------------------------------------------
Sources: American Publishers - Circular and Literary Gazette, Oct. 14, 1861; Baltimore Sun, May 20, June 24 and Aug. 12, 1861; Christian Advocate and Journal, Oct. 10, 1861; Chicago Tribune, Aug. 13, 1861; Harper's Weekly, June 1, Oct. 19 and Nov. 16, 1861; Hartford Daily Courant, May 9 and May 20, 1861; New York Daily Tribune, Aug. 10, 1861; New York Observer and Chronicle, Oct. 24, 1861; New York Times, May 18, May 20, July 28 and Aug. 18, 1861; National Republican, Aug. 13, Oct. 5, Oct. 12 and Oct. 29, 1861; Saturday Evening Post, Nov. 30, 1861; The Independent, May 30, Oct. 10 and Dec. 12, 1861; Vanity Fair, June 22, June 29, July 6, July 13, Aug. 24, Oct. 19 and Nov. 9, 1861; Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas, eds., 'The Diary of George Templeton Strong,' vol. III; Richard Grant White, "National Hymns: How They Are Written and How They Are Not Written, A Lyric and National Study for the Times." See also, Kenneth A. Bernard, "Lincoln and the Music of the Civil War"; Robert James Branham and Stephen Hartnett, ?Sweet Freedom?s Song: "My Country 'Tis of Thee' and Democracy in America"; Robert J. Brugger, "Maryland: A Middle Temperament, 1634-1980"; Cecil D. Eby, Jr., "The National Hymn Contest and -Orpheus C. Kerr",- Massachusetts Review 1 (1960); Alice Fahs, "The Imagined Civil War: Popular Literature of the North and South, 1861-1865"; Adam Goodheart, "1861: The Civil War Awakening"; George J. Svejda, "The History of the Star-Spangled Banner from 1814 to the Present"; Lonn Taylor, et al., "The Star-Spangled Banner: The Making of an American Icon."

2011-08-24T11:20:00.003-06:00

Mitchell Paige, Platoon Sergeant
United States Marine Corps

Mitchell Paige (August 31, 1918 - November 15, 2003) was a recipient of the Medal of Honor from World War II. He received this, the highest military honor awarded by the United States of America, for his actions at the Battle of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands on October 26, 1942, where, after all of the other Marines in his platoon were killed or wounded, he operated four machine guns, singlehandedly stopping an entire Japanese regiment.

Early life
Paige was born in Charleroi, Pennsylvania. His parents were Serb immigrants who arrived in the United States from the Military Frontier of Croatia, their last name being Pejic. His mother kept him and his brother in touch with their roots, reminding them of the Battle of Kosovo, but also told them to be proud Americans.

Military service
In the Battle of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, on October 26, 1942, while a platoon Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps, he held his line against advancing Japanese forces even after all of his comrades had been killed or wounded. After reinforcements arrived, Paige led a counterattack against the Japanese, which successfully repelled the enemy forces and held the American line. While on Guadalcanal he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the field on December 19, 1942. General Alexander Vandegrift presented Paige with the Medal of Honor in a special ceremony in Balcombe, Australia, on May 21, 1943 for his actions. Paige later served in the Korean War.

Later life and death
Paige retired in 1959 with the rank of Colonel. In retirement, Paige wrote a book about his experiences titled A Marine Named Mitch (published in 1975). In his later years, he served to ferret out imposters wearing or selling the Medal of Honor.

On November 15, 2003, Paige died of congestive heart failure at his home in La Quinta, California at the age of 85. He was the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient of the Guadalcanal campaign. He was buried with full military honors at the Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California.

Honors and awards
Through his life Paige received numerous awards both as a member of the military and as a civilian. In addition to receiving the Medal of Honor, he was also an Eagle Scout and had a G.I. Joe action figure designed in his likeness.

Military awards
Among his numerous military decorations were: the Medal of Honor, the Purple Heart, the Presidential Unit Citation, the Good Conduct Medal, the China Service Medal, the American Defense Service Medal with Base clasp, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two bronze stars, the American Campaign Medal, the Victory Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Service Medal, the Marine Corps Reserve Ribbon, and the United Nations Service Medal.

Medal of Honor citation
The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR to

PLATOON SERGEANT MITCHELL PAIGE
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
for service as set forth in the following
CITATION:

For extraordinary heroism and conspicuous gallantry in action above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the Second Battalion, Seventh Marines, First Marine Division, in combat against enemy Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands Area on October 26, 1942. When the enemy broke through the line directly in front of his position, Platoon Sergeant Paige, commanding a machine-gun section with fearless determination, continued to direct the fire of his gunners until all his men were either killed or wounded. Alone, against the deadly hail of Japanese shells, he manned his gun, and when it was destroyed, took over another, moving from gun to gun, never ceasing his withering fire against the advancing hordes until reinforcements finally arrived. Then, forming a new line, he dauntlessly and aggressively led a bayonet charge, driving the enemy back and preventing a break through in our lines. His great personal valor and unyielding devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

/S/ FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

2011-08-20T03:00:00.004-06:00

Maj. General Smedley Butler,
U. S. Marine Corps
War Hero, Antiwar Activist (1881-1940)
Speaks out in his own words

"I served in all commissioned ranks from second lieutenant to Major General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism. I suspected I was just part of the racket all the time. Now I am sure of it."

Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, also known as "The Fighting Quaker." At the time of his death, the most decorated Marine in US history, and the only person to be awarded a Marine Corps Brevet Medal and a Medal of Honor for two separate military actions. He was also an unrelenting voice against the business of war.

Raised by prominent Quaker parents, Smedley Butler defied his pacifist lineage by joining the Marines just before his 17th birthday. He served in Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico and Haiti (earning his Medals of Honor in the latter two places). He served and distinguished himself in World War I, although he was not stationed on the front lines for combat. Butler was known for his leadership and commitment to the welfare of the men under his command. He rose quickly through the ranks to become one of the youngest major generals at age 48.

Butler was very vocal against what he saw as a rise in admiration for Fascism and Mussolini. He told an unfavorable story about Mussolini for which he was court-martialed. Rather than recant and apologize, Butler retired from the military in 1931. By then, he had also begun questioning US involvement in foreign conflicts. Butler saw the US as being imperialistic, that war (in particular WWI) was really a profitable business for the few at the expense of thousands of lives, and that he himself was a cog in the war machine. In a booklet titled War is a Racket, Butler wrote, “In the World War a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War….How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle?....The general public shoulders the bill. And what is this bill?....Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds….For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out. "War is a Racket grew out of a series of speeches Butler gave to whatever group wanted to hear his views. Veterans, groups with Communist leanings" it did not matter to him. This often drew criticism against Butler, but he was steadfast in his beliefs about war, US imperialism, and a growing Pro-Fascist movement. He spoke frankly and honestly about his experiences and opinions, and was very popular with the American public.

In 1934, Butler went before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) to expose a conspiracy against the government. He had been recruited by a group of wealthy Pro-Fascists who had hoped to use him in a coup against President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He went along, gathering intelligence about the plot, and took it to Congress. Butler’s assertions were not aggressively pursued, and the matter largely dismissed. However, an internal report to Congress from HUAC confirmed the veracity of the plot, though no more action was taken. For more on this, go to http://www.ahealedplanet.net/war.htm#butler .

Smedley Butler died in 1940, but his presence is still very much alive. The Boston, MA chapter of Veterans For Peace is named the Smedley D. Butler Brigade, and he is featured in the documentary "The Corporation." A free copy of War is a Racket is available at http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html .

2011-08-15T05:10:00.003-06:00

Nancy Wake
Proud Spy and Nazi Foe
Nancy Grace Augusta Wake, AC, GM (30 August 1912 - 7 August 2011), nicknamed "The White Mouse", served as a British agent during the later part of World War II. She became a leading figure in the maquis groups of the French Resistance and became one of the Allies most decorated servicewomen of the war.

Early life
Born in Roseneath, Wellington, New Zealand, Wake was the youngest of six children. In 1914, when she was two years old, her family moved to Sydney, Australia and settled at North Sydney. Later, her father Charles Augustus Wake went back to New Zealand and never returned to Sydney, leaving her mother Ella Wake nйe Rosieur (1874-1968) to raise the children.

In Sydney, she attended the North Sydney Household Arts (Home Science) School (see North Sydney Technical High School). At the age of 16, she ran away from home and worked as a nurse. With Ј200 that she had received from the will of an aunt, she journeyed to New York, then London where she trained herself as a journalist. In the 1930s she worked in Paris and later she worked for Hearst newspapers as a European correspondent. She witnessed the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi movement, and witnessed the violence toward Jews, Romas, blacks and protesters on the Paris streets and in Vienna.

Wartime service and Special Operations Executive
In 1937 she met wealthy French industrialist Henri Edmond Fiocca (1898-1943), whom she married on 30 November 1939. She was living in Marseille, France when Germany invaded. After the fall of France in 1940, she became a courier for the French Resistance and later joined the escape network of Captain Ian Garrow. In reference to her ability to elude capture, the Gestapo called her the White Mouse. The French Resistance had to be very careful with her missions as her life was in constant danger and the Gestapo were tapping her phone and intercepting her mail.

By 1943, she was the Gestapo's most wanted person, with a 5 million-franc price on her head. When the network was betrayed that same year, she decided to flee Marseille. Her husband, Henri Fiocca, stayed behind where he was later captured, tortured and executed by the Gestapo. Wake had been arrested in Toulouse, but was released four days later. She succeeded, on her sixth attempt, in crossing the Pyrenees to Spain. Until the war was over, Wake had been unaware of her husband's death and subsequently blamed herself for it.

After reaching Britain, Wake joined the Special Operations Executive. Vera Atkins, who also worked in the SOE, recalls her as "a real Australian bombshell. Tremendous vitality, flashing eyes. Everything she did, she did well". Training reports record that she was "a very good and fast shot" and possessed excellent fieldcraft. She was noted to "put the men to shame by her cheerful spirit and strength of character".

On the night of 29-30 April 1944 she was parachuted into the Auvergne, becoming a liaison between London and the local maquis group headed by Captain Henri Tardivat. Upon discovering her tangled in a tree, Captain Tardivat greeted her, remarking "I hope that all the trees in France bear such beautiful fruit this year." to which she replied “Don’t give me that French shit.- Part of her duties were to allocate arms and equipment that were parachuted in and minding the group's finances. She became instrumental in recruiting more members, making the maquis groups into a formidable force, roughly 7,500 strong. She also led attacks on German installations and the local Gestapo HQ in Montluзon.

From April 1944 to the liberation of France, her 7,000 maquisards fought 22,000 SS soldiers, causing 1,400 casualties, while taking only 100 themselves. Her French companions, especially Henri Tardivat, praised her fighting spirit, amply demonstrated when she killed an SS sentry with her bare hands to prevent him raising the alarm during a raid. During a 1990s television interview, when asked what had happened to the sentry who spotted her, Wake simply drew her finger across her throat. On another occasion, to replace codes her wireless operator had been forced to destroy in a German raid, Wake rode a bicycle for more than 500 miles (800 km) through several German checkpoints. During a German attack on another maquis group, Wake, along with two American officers, took command of a section whose leader had been killed. She directed the covering fire with exceptional coolness, facilitating the group's withdrawal without further losses.

Post-war
Immediately after the war, Wake was awarded the George Medal, the United States Medal of Freedom, the Mйdaille de la Rйsistance and thrice the Croix de Guerre. She also learned that the Gestapo had tortured her husband to death in 1943 for refusing to disclose her whereabouts. After the war she worked for the Intelligence Department at the British Air Ministry attached to embassies of Paris and Prague.

Wake stood as a Liberal candidate in the 1949 Australian federal election for the Sydney seat of Barton, running against Dr. Herbert Evatt, then Deputy Prime Minister, Attorney-General and Minister for External Afairs in the Ben Chifley Labor government. While Chifley lost government to Robert Menzies, Wake recorded a 13 percent swing against Evatt, with Evatt retaining the seat with 53.2 per cent of the vote on a two-party preferred basis. Wake ran against Evatt again at the 1951 federal election. By this time, Evatt was Deputy Leader of the Opposition. The result was extremely close, however Evatt retained the seat with a margin of fewer than 250 votes. Evatt slightly increased his margin at subsequent elections before relocating to the safer seat of Hunter by 1958.

Wake left Australia just after the 1951 election and moved back to England. She worked as an intelligence officer in the department of the Assistant Chief of Air Staff at the Air Ministry in Whitehall. She resigned in 1957 after marrying an RAF officer, John Forward in the December of that year. They returned to Australia in the early 1960s. Maintaining her interest in politics, Wake was endorsed as a Liberal candidate at the 1966 federal election for the Sydney seat of Kingsford Smith. Despite recording a swing of 6.9 per cent against the sitting Labor member Daniel Curtin, Wake was again unsuccessful. Around 1985, Wake and John Forward left Sydney to retire to Port Macquarie.

In 1985, Wake published her autobiography, entitled The White Mouse. The book became a best seller, and it has been reprinted many times.

After spending 40 years together her husband, John Forward, died at Port Macquarie on 19 August 1997; the couple had no children.

In 2001 she left Australia for the last time and emigrated to London. She became a resident at the Stafford Hotel in St James's Place, near Piccadilly, formerly a British and American forces club during the war. She had been introduced to her first "bloody good drink" there by the general manager at the time, Louis Burdet. He had also worked for the Resistance in Marseilles. In the mornings she would usually be found in the hotel bar, sipping her first gin and tonic of the day. She was welcomed at the hotel, celebrating her 90th birthday there, where the hotel owners absorbed most of the costs of her stay. In 2003 Nancy Wake chose to move to the Royal Star and Garter Home for Disabled Ex-Service Men and Women in Richmond, London, where she remained until her death.

Film and television producers used Ms. Wake's early life as a basis for various works, and she generally approved of them, except for those suggesting that she had love affairs during the war. She did not have affairs, she insisted in a 1987 Australian documentary.

"And in my old age, I regreat it," she said. "But you see, if I had accommodated one man, the word would have spread around, and I would have had to accommodate the whole damn lot."

Wake died at age of 98 on Sunday evening 7 August 2011 at Kingston Hospital after being admitted to hospital with a chest infection. She had requested that her ashes be scattered at Montluзon in central France.

Honours
Wake was appointed a Chevalier (knight) of the Legion of Honour in 1970 and was promoted to Officer of the Legion of Honour in 1988.

Initially, she refused offers of decorations from Australia saying "The last time there was a suggestion of that I told the government they could stick their medals where the monkey stuck his nuts. The thing is if they gave me a medal now, it wouldn't be love so I don't want anything from them". It was not until February 2004, that Wake received the Companion of the Order of Australia.

In April 2006, she was awarded the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association's highest honour the RSA Badge in Gold. Wake's medals are on display in the Second World War gallery at the Australian War Memorial Museum in Canberra.

On 3 June 2010, a 'heritage pylon' paying tribute to Wake was unveiled on Oriental Parade in Wellington, New Zealand, near the place of her birth.

2011-08-12T06:02:00.002-06:00

U. S. Marine Corps Hymn
The "Marines' Hymn" is the official hymn of the United States Marine Corps. It is also the oldest official song in the United States military. The "Marines' Hymn" is typically sung at the position of attention as a gesture of respect. However, the third verse is also used as a toast during formal events, such as the birthday ball and other ceremonies.

History
Some of the lyrics were popular phrases before the song was written. The line "To the shores of Tripoli" refers to the First Barbary War, and specifically the Battle of Derne in 1805. After Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon and his Marines hoisted the American flag over the Old World for the first time, the phrase was added to the battle colors of the Corps. "The Halls of Montezuma" refers to the Battle of Chapultepec, during the Mexican-American War, where a force of Marines stormed Chapultepec Castle.

While the lyrics are said to date from the 19th century, no pre-20th century text is known. The author of the lyrics is likewise unknown. Legend has it that it was penned by a Marine on duty in Mexico. The unknown author transposed the phrases in the motto on the Colors so that the first two lines of the Hymn would read: "From the Halls of Montezuma, to the Shores of Tripoli", favoring euphony over chronology.

The music is from the Gendarmes' Duet from an 1867 revision of the 1859 opera Geneviиve de Brabant by Jacques Offenbach, which debuted in Paris in 1859. Correspondence between Colonel Albert S. McLemore and Walter F. Smith (the second leader of the Marine Band) traces the tune:

“ Major Richard Wallach, USMC, says that in 1878, when he was in Paris, France, the aria to which the Marines' Hymn is now sung was a very popular one. ”

The name of the opera and a part of the chorus was secured from Major Wallach and forwarded to Mr. Smith, who replied:

“ Major Wallach is to be congratulated upon a wonderfully accurate musical memory, for the aria of the Marine Hymn is certainly to be found in the opera, 'Genevieve de Brabant'... The melody is not in the exact form of the Marine Hymn, but is undoubtedly the aria from which it was taken. I am informed, however, by one of the members of the band, who has a Spanish wife, that the aria was one familiar to her childhood and it may, therefore, be a Spanish folk song. ”

John Philip Sousa once wrote:

“ The melody of the 'Halls of Montezuma' is taken from Offenbach's comic opera, 'Genevieve de Brabant' and is sung by two gendarmes. ”

Some websites claim that the Marine Corps secured a copyright on the song on 19 August 1891, but this is in error; the copyright was vested on 18 August 1919. In 1929, the Commandant of the Marine Corps authorized the three verses of the Marines' Hymn as the official version, but changed the third and fourth lines:

Pre-1929 version
Admiration of the nation,
we're the finest ever seen;
And we glory in the title
Of United States Marines.

Authorized change
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
Of United States Marine.

This older version can be heard in the 1950 film Halls of Montezuma. On 21 November 1942, Commandant Thomas Holcomb approved a change in the words of the first verse's fourth line from "On the land as on the sea" to "In the air, on land, and sea" to reflect the addition of aviation to the Corp's arsenal.

Lyrics
From the Halls of Montezuma,
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land, and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean:
We are proud to claim the title
Of United States Marine.

Our flag's unfurled to every breeze
From dawn to setting sun;
We have fought in every clime and place
Where we could take a gun;
In the snow of far-off Northern lands
And in sunny tropic scenes;
You will find us always on the job
The United States Marines.

Here's health to you and to our Corps
Which we are proud to serve;
In many a strife we've fought for life
And never lost our nerve;
If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven’s scenes;
They will find the streets are guarded
By The United States Marines.

Extra verses
Various people over the years wrote unofficial or semi-unofficial extra verses to commemorate later battles and actions, for example, this verse commemorating the occupation of Iceland during World War II:

Again in 1941, we sailed a north'ard course
and found beneath the midnight sun, the Viking and the Norse.
The Iceland girls were slim and fair, and fair the Iceland scenes,
and the Army found in landing there, the United States Marines.

2011-08-07T12:31:00.005-06:00

Victory over Japan Day

NOAH'S NOTE: On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, the last island (Okinawa) in a chain of many was invaded by Americans. My First Marine Division made the first Pacific offensive invasion of World War II on the island of Guadalcanal on Aug. 7, 1942 - 3 years and 1 week later, the enemy (Japan) surrendered. My age was 17 when I experienced my first battle. I was 20 years and 3 days old when the war ended 66 years ago. In September, my First Marine Division was sent to North China to accept the surrender of the Japanese that had been occupying most of China for years. This was necessary since Chiang Kai-shek's army had been driven to South China and would require months from his army to return to North China. I did not return to the States until April 1946, and I still was not old enough to buy a beer or to vote. On August 11, I will celebrate my 85th birthday.

Victory over Japan Day (also known as Victory in the Pacific Day, V-J Day, or V-P Day) is a name chosen for the day on which the Surrender of Japan occurred, effectively ending World War II, and subsequent anniversaries of that event. The term has been applied to both the day on which the initial announcement of Japan's surrender was made in the afternoon of August 15, 1945, in Japan, and because of time zone differences, to August 14, 1945, (when it was announced in the United States, Western Europe, the Americas, the Pacific Islands, and Australia/New Zealand), as well as to September 2, 1945, when the signing of the surrender document occurred.

August 15 is the official V-J Day for the UK while the official US commemoration is September 2. The name, V-J Day, had been selected by the Allies after they named V-E Day for the victory in Europe.

On September 2, 1945, a formal surrender ceremony was performed in Tokyo Bay, Japan aboard the battleship USS Missouri. In Japan, the day usually is known as the "memorial day for the end of the war" (Shusen-kinenbi?); the official name for the day, however, is "the day for mourning of war dead and praying for peace" (Senbotsusha wo tsuitoshi heiwa wo kinennsuru hi?). This official name was adopted in 1982 by an ordinance issued by the Japanese government.

August 15 is commemorated as Liberation Day in Korea.

Surrender
A little after noon in Japan Standard Time on August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito's announcement of Japan's acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration was broadcast to the Japanese people over the radio. Earlier the same day, the Japanese government had broadcast an announcement over Radio Tokyo that "acceptance of the Potsdam Proclamation [would be] coming soon," and had advised the Allies of the surrender by sending a cable to U.S. President Harry S Truman via the Swiss diplomatic mission in Washington, D.C. A nation-wide broadcast by President Truman was aired at seven o'clock p.m. (daylight time in Washington, D.C.) on August 14 announcing the communication and that the formal event was scheduled for September 2. In his announcement of Japan's surrender on August 14, President Truman said that "the proclamation of V-J Day must wait upon the formal signing of the surrender terms by Japan". The formal Japanese signing of the surrender terms took place on board the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, and at that time Truman declared September 2 to be the official V-J Day.

Since the European Axis Powers had surrendered three months earlier (V-E Day), V-J Day would be the official end of World War II. In Australia and most other allied nations, the name V-P Day was used from the outset. The Canberra Times of August 14, 1945, refers to VP Day celebrations, and a public holiday for VP Day was gazetted by the government in that year according to the Australian War Memorial.

On August 15 and 16 some Japanese soldiers, devastated by the surrender, committed suicide. Well over 100 American prisoners of war also were executed. In addition, many Australian and British prisoners of war were executed in Borneo, at both Ranau and Sandakan, by the Imperial Japanese Army. At Batu Lintang camp, also in Borneo, death orders were found which proposed the execution of some 2,000 POWs and civilian internees on September 15, 1945.

Guadalcanal

2011-07-29T04:08:00.002-06:00

Guadalcanal
Sixtynine years ago

Guadalcanal (Isatabu) is a tropical island in the South-Western Pacific. The largest island in the Solomons, it was discovered by the Spanish expedition of Alvaro de Mendaсa in 1568. The name comes from Guadalcanal, a village in the province of Seville, in Andalusia, Spain, birthplace of Pedro de Ortega Valencia, a member of Mendaсa's expedition.

During 1942-43 it was the scene of bitter fighting between Japanese and Americans in which the latter were victorious.

At the end of the war, Honiara, on the north coast of Guadalcanal, became the new capital of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. Guadalcanal is mainly covered in tropical rainforest and jungle, and has a mountainous interior with an active volcano, Mount Popomanaseu. The population in 1998 was around 85,000.

History

Western Charting

A Spanish expedition from Peru under the command of Бlvaro de Mendeсa de Neira discovered the island in the year 1568. Mendaсa's subordinate, Pedro de Ortega Valencia, named the island after his home town Guadalcanal in Andalusia, Spain. The name comes from the Arabic Wadо al-Khanat, which means "Valley of the Stalls", referring to the refreshment stalls which were set up there during Muslim rule in Andalusia. In the years that followed the discovery, the island was variously referred to as Guadarcana, Guarcana, Guadalcana, and Guadalcanar.

European settlers and missionaries began to arrive in the 18th and 19th centuries, and in the year 1893, the British Solomon Islands Protectorate was proclaimed which included the island of Guadalcanal. In 1932, the British confirmed the name Guadalcanal in line with the town in Andalusia, Spain.

The Second World War
Guadalcanal Campaign

In the months following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the Japanese drove the Americans out of the Philippines, the British out of British Malaya, and the Dutch out of the East Indies. The Japanese then began to expand into the Western Pacific, occupying many islands in an attempt to build a defensive ring around their conquests and threaten the lines of communication from the United States to Australia and New Zealand. The Japanese reached Guadalcanal in May 1942.

When an allied reconnaissance mission spotted construction of a Japanese airfield at Lunga Point on the north coast of Guadalcanal, the situation became critical. This new Japanese airfield represented a threat to Australia itself, and so the United States as a matter of urgency, despite not being adequately prepared, conducted the first amphibious landing of the war. The initial landings of US Marines on August 7, 1942 secured the airfield without too much difficulty, but holding the airfield for the next six months was one of the most hotly contested campaigns in the entire war for the control of ground, sea and skies. Guadalcanal became a major turning point in the war as it stopped Japanese expansion. After six months of fighting the Japanese ceased trying to contest the control of the island. They finally evacuated the island at Cape Esperance on the north west coast in February 1943.

Immediately after landing on the island, the allies began finishing the airfield begun by the Japanese. It was then named Henderson Field after a Marine aviator killed in combat during the Battle of Midway. Aircraft operating from Henderson Field during the campaign were a hodgepodge of Marine, Army, Navy and allied aircraft that became known as the Cactus Air Force. They defended the airfield and threatened any Japanese ships that ventured into the vicinity during daylight hours. However, at night, Japanese naval forces were able to shell the airfield and deliver troops with supplies, retiring before daylight. The Japanese used fast ships to make these runs, and this became known as the Tokyo Express. So many ships from both sides were sunk in the many engagements in and around the Solomon Island chain that the nearby waters were referred to as Ironbottom Sound.

The Battle of Cape Esperance was fought on October 11, 1942 off the northwest coast of Guadalcanal. In the battle, United States Navy ships intercepted and defeated a Japanese formation of ships on their way down 'the Slot' to reinforce and resupply troops on the island, but suffered losses as well. The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November marked the turning point in which Allied Naval forces took on the extremely experienced Japanese surface forces at night and forced them to withdraw after sharp action. Some Japanese viewpoints consider these engagements, and the improving Allied surface capability to challenge their surface ships at night, to be just as significant as the Battle of Midway in turning the tide against them.

After six months of hard combat in and around Guadalcanal and dealing with jungle diseases that took a heavy toll of troops on both sides, Allied forces managed to halt the Japanese advance and dissuade them from contesting the control of the island by finally driving the last of the Japanese troops into the sea on January 15, 1943. American authorities declared Guadalcanal secure on February 9, 1943.

Two U.S. Navy ships have been named for the battle:

* USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60), a World War II escort carrier.
* USS Guadalcanal (LPH-7), an amphibious assault ship.

To date, the only Coast Guardsman recipient of the Medal of Honor is Signalman 1st Class, Douglas Albert Munro, awarded posthumously for his extraordinary heroism on September 27, 1942 at Point Cruz, Guadalcanal. Munro provided a shield and covering fire, and helped evacuate 500 besieged Marines from a beach at Point Cruz; he was killed during the evacuation.

During the Battle for Guadalcanal, the Medal of Honor was also awarded to John Basilone who later perished on Iwo Jima.

2011-07-21T04:50:00.003-06:00

Cpl. Dakota Meyer, US Marine
Nominated for Medal of Honor

Dakota Meyer (born c.1988) is a United States Marine Corps veteran who has been approved to receive the Medal of Honor. In October 2010, the Marine Corps nominated him for his actions during the Battle of Ganjgal on September 8, 2009, part of Operation Enduring Freedom in Kunar province, Afghanistan.

Biography
Meyer was born in Greensburg, Kentucky, and after completing training to be a United States Marine he deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, in 2007 as a Scout Sniper with 3rd Battalion 3rd Marines. He gained national attention for his actions in Afghanistan during his second deployment in Kunar province with Embedded Training Team 2-8.

On September 8, 2009, near the village of Ganjgal, Meyer learned that three U.S. Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman were missing after being attacked by a group of insurgents. Upon hearing the news he charged into an area known to be inhabited by insurgents and under enemy fire and eventually found them dead, stripped of their gear and equipment. With the help of some friendly Afghan soldiers he got the bodies to a safer area where they could be extracted.

On November 6, 2010, the Commandant of the Marine Corps General James Amos told reporters during a visit to Camp Pendleton, California, that a living Marine had been nominated for the Medal of Honor. Two days later, Marine Corps Times, an independent newspaper covering U.S. Marine operations, reported that the unnamed individual was Meyer, citing anonymous sources. CNN confirmed the story independently two days later.

Corporal Dakota Meyer, who left active duty in June 2010, will be the first living Marine in 41 years to receive the nation's highest award for valor.

On June 9, 2011, the Marine Corps announced that two other Marines on Meyer's team in Ganjgal would receive the Navy Cross, the second-highest valor award a Marine can receive. Capt. Ademola D. Fabayo and Staff Sgt. Juan J. Rodriguez-Chavez were recognized for their roles in retrieving the missing Marines and corpsman. Before Meyer went looking for them on foot, Rodriguez-Chavez also drove a gun truck into the kill zone while Fabayo manned its machine gun.

On July 18, 2011, President Barack Obama called Meyer and informed him his case for the Medal of Honor had been approved, Marine Corps Times reported. No date for the White House ceremony has been announced

2011-07-20T08:36:00.004-06:00

Armistice ends the Korean

War

27 July 1953

NOAH'S NOTE: After three years as a member of the First Marine Division during World War II, this was the last war for me during my 20 years service in the United States Marine Corps. I retired at age 37, 49 years ago from the Corps. We have a new crop of American fighters today as we now have no active duty personnel that fought in the Korean War.
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After three years of a bloody and frustrating war, the United States, the People's Republic of China, North Korea, and South Korea agree to an armistice, bringing the Korean War to an end. The armistice ended America's first experiment with the Cold War concept of "limited war."

The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when communist North Korea invaded South Korea. Almost immediately, the United States secured a resolution from the United Nations calling for the military defense of South Korea against the North Korean aggression. In a matter of days, U.S. land, air, and sea forces had joined the battle. The U.S. intervention turned the tide of the war, and soon the U.S. and South Korean forces were pushing into North Korea and toward that nation's border with China. In November and December 1951, hundreds of thousands of troops from the People's Republic of China began heavy assaults against the American and South Korea forces. The war eventually bogged down into a battle of attrition.

In the U.S. presidential election of 1952, Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower strongly criticized President Harry S. Truman's handling of the war. After his victory, Eisenhower adhered to his promise to "go to Korea." His trip convinced him that something new was needed to break the diplomatic logjam at the peace talks that had begun in July 1951. Eisenhower began to publicly hint that the United States might make use of its nuclear arsenal to break the military stalemate in Korea. He allowed the Nationalist Chinese government on Taiwan to begin harassing air raids on mainland China. The president also put pressure on his South Korean ally to drop some of its demands in order to speed the peace process.

Whether or not Eisenhower's threats of nuclear attacks helped, by July 1953 all sides involved in the conflict were ready to sign an agreement ending the bloodshed. The armistice, signed on July 27, established a committee of representatives from neutral countries to decide the fate of the thousands of prisoners of war on both sides. It was eventually decided that the POWs could choose their own fate--stay where they were or return to their homelands.

A new border between North and South Korea was drawn, which gave South Korea some additional territory and demilitarized the zone between the two nations. The war cost the lives of millions of Koreans and Chinese, as well as over 50,000 Americans. It had been a frustrating war for Americans, who were used to forcing the unconditional surrender of their enemies. Many also could not understand why the United States had not expanded the war into China or used its nuclear arsenal. As government officials were well aware, however, such actions would likely have prompted World War III.

2011-07-17T05:33:00.002-06:00

With the Marines at Tarawa

1945 Academy Award for Best Documentary Film Short Subject

Directed by Louis Hayward

Cinematography Norman T. Hatch - Marine Corps Combat Motion Picture Cameraman that shot the footage during combat on Tarawa

Release date: March 2, 1944

With the Marines at Tarawa is a 1944 short propaganda documentary film directed by Louis Hayward. It used authentic footage taken at the Battle of Tarawa to tell the story of the American servicemen from the time they get the news that they are to participate in the invasion to the final taking of the island and raising of the Stars and Stripes.

The film is in full color and uses no actors, making it a valuable historical document. The documentary showed more gruesome scenes of battle than other war films to date. According to the documentary The War, President Roosevelt himself gave approval for showing the film, against the wishes of many advisors.

Since the pictures were far too graphic to meet the standards of Hollywood producers and distributors, only the President could grant permission for its release to the general public. President Roosevelt consulted the only man who was present at the Battle of Tarawa that he personally knew and trusted, Time-Life photographer Robert Sherrod. Quoting Sherrod, "I tell the President the truth. Our soldiers on the front want people back home to know that they don't knock the hell out of them every day of every battle. They want people to understand that war is a horrible, nasty business, and to say otherwise is to do a disservice to those who died." Based on Sherrod's prompting, FDR agreed to release the film, uncensored.

The film won the 1945 Academy Award for Best Documentary Film Short Subject.

2011-07-13T04:09:00.000-06:00

Battle of Guam (1944)
The Second Battle of Guam (July 21 - August 8, 1944) was the American capture of the Japanese held island of Guam (in the Mariana Islands) during the Pacific campaign of World War II.

Background
Guam is the largest of the Marianas, 30 miles (48 km) long and 9 miles (14 km) wide. It had been a United States possession since its capture from Spain in 1898 until it was captured by the Japanese on December 11, 1941, following the Attack on Pearl Harbor. It was not as heavily fortified as the other Mariana Islands such as Saipan that had been Japanese possessions since the end of World War I, but by 1944 it had a large Japanese garrison.

The Allied plan for the invasion of the Marianas called for heavy preliminary bombardment, first by carrier aircraft and planes based in the Marshall Islands to the east, then once air superiority was gained, close bombardment by battleships. Guam was chosen as a target because its large size made it suitable as a base for supporting the next stage of operations towards the Philippines, Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands; the deep-water harbor at Apra was suitable for the largest ships; and the two airfields would be suitable for B-29 Superfortress bombers.

The invasion of Saipan was scheduled for June 15, 1944, with landings on Guam tentatively set for June 18. The original timetable was optimistic. Stubborn resistance by the unexpectedly large garrison on Saipan, and a large Japanese carrier attack led to the invasion of Guam being postponed for a month.

Battle
Guam, ringed by reefs, cliffs, and heavy surf, presents a formidable challenge for an attacker. On July 21 the Americans landed on both sides of the Orote peninsula on the western side of Guam, planning to cut off the airfield. The 3rd Marine Division landed near Agana to the north of Orote at 08:28, and the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade landed near Agat to the south. Japanese artillery sank 20 LVTs, but by 09:00 tanks were ashore at both beaches. The 77th Infantry Division had a more difficult landing. Lacking amphibious vehicles, they had to wade ashore from the edge of the reef where they were dropped by their landing craft.

By nightfall the Americans had established beachheads about 2,000 meters deep. Japanese counter-attacks were made throughout the first few days of the battle, mostly at night, using infiltration tactics. Several times they penetrated the American defenses and were driven back with heavy loss of men and equipment. Lieutenant General Takeshi Takashina was killed on July 28, and Lieutenant General Hideyoshi Obata took over the command of the defenders.

Supply was very difficult for the Americans in the first days of the battle. Landing ships could not come closer than the reef, several hundred yards from the beach, and amphibious vehicles were scarce. However, the two beachheads were joined up on July 28, and the Orote airfield and Apra harbor were captured by July 30.

The counterattacks around the American beachheads had exhausted the Japanese. At the start of August they were running out of food and ammunition and had only a handful of tanks left. Obata withdrew his troops from the south of Guam, planning to make a stand in the mountainous central part of the island. But with resupply and reinforcement impossible because of American control of the sea and air around Guam, he could hope to do no more than delay the inevitable defeat for a few days.

Rain and thick jungle made conditions difficult for the Americans, but after an engagement at Mount Barrigada from August 2 to August 4, the Japanese line collapsed; the rest of the battle was a pursuit to the north. As in other battles of the Pacific War, the Japanese refused to surrender, and almost all were killed.

Aftermath
A few Japanese soldiers held out in the jungle. On December 8, 1945, three U.S. Marines were ambushed and killed. On January 24, 1972, Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi was discovered by hunters. He had lived alone in a cave for 27 years.

After the battle, Guam was turned into a base for Allied operations. Five large airfields were built by the Seabees, and B-29 bombers flew from the island to attack targets in the Western Pacific and on mainland Japan.

Four U.S. Marines were awarded the Medal of Honor for their heroic actions during the Battle of Guam: PFC Luther Skaggs Jr., PFC Frank Witek (posthumously), PFC Leonard F. Mason (posthumously) and Captain (later General) Louis H. Wilson, Jr.

2011-07-09T11:51:00.004-06:00

Battle of Saipan
United States Marine Jack Scott was a member of 2nd Marine Division and he is a survivor of the Battle of Saipan. For those that live in the Gulf Breeze, Fla. area, you can meet Marine hero Scott at Gulf Breeze Whataburger Restaurant between 0700-0800 each day. You will see Jack and a dozen of his friends setting at a table and drinking coffee while talking about happy things. Politics is NOT discussed. Jack will tell you that being a former live Marine is as good as it gets.

The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June-9 July 1944. The Allied invasion fleet embarking the expeditionary forces left Pearl Harbor on 5 June 1944, the day before Operation Overlord in Europe was launched. The U.S. 2nd Marine Division, 4th Marine Division, and 27th Infantry Division, commanded by Lieutenant General Holland Smith, defeated the 43rd Division of the Imperial Japanese Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Yoshitsugu Saito.

Background
In the campaigns of 1943 and the first half of 1944, the Allies had captured the Solomon Islands, the Gilbert Islands, the Marshall Islands and the Papuan peninsula of New Guinea. This left the Japanese holding the Philippines, the Caroline Islands, Palau Islands and Mariana Islands.

It had always been the intention of the American planners to bypass the Carolines and Palaus and to seize the Marianas and Taiwan. From these latter bases communications between the Japanese homeland and Japanese forces to the south and west could be cut. In addition, from the Marianas Japan would be well within the range of an air offensive relying on the new B-29 Superfortress long-range bomber with its operational radius of 1,500 miles.

While not part of the original American plan Douglas MacArthur, commander of the Southwest Pacific Area command, obtained authorization to advance through New Guinea and Morotai toward the Philippines. This allowed MacArthur to keep his personal pledge, made in his "I shall return" speech, to liberate the Philippines, and also allowed the active use of the large forces built up in the southwest Pacific theatre.

The Japanese, expecting an attack somewhere on their perimeter, thought an attack on the Caroline Islands most likely. To reinforce and supply their garrisons, they needed naval and air superiority, so Operation A-Go, a major carrier attack, was prepared for June 1944.

Battle
Bombardment of Saipan began on 13 June 1944. Fifteen battleships were involved, and 165,000 shells were fired. Seven modern fast battleships delivered twenty-four hundred 16 inch shells, but to avoid potential minefields, fire was from a distance of 10,000 yd (9,100 m) or more, and crews were inexperienced in shore bombardment. The following day the eight pre-Pearl Harbor battleships and eleven cruisers under Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf replaced the fast battleships but were lacking in time and ammunition.

The landings began at 07:00 on 15 June 1944. More than 300 LVTs landed 8,000 Marines on the west coast of Saipan by about 09:00. Eleven fire support ships covered the Marine landings. The naval force consisted of the battleships USS Tennessee and California. The cruisers were USS Birmingham and Indianapolis . The destroyers were USS Norman Scott , Monssen , Colahan, Halsey Powell , Bailey, Robinson and Albert W. Grant,. Careful Japanese artillery preparation-placing flags in the bay to indicate the range—allowed them to destroy about 20 amphibious tanks, and the Japanese strategically placed barbed wire, artillery, machine gun emplacements, and trenches to maximize the American casualties. However, by nightfall the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions had a beachhead about 6 mi (9.7 km) wide and .5 mi (0.8 km) deep. The Japanese counter-attacked at night but were repulsed with heavy losses. On 16 June, units of the U.S. Army's 27th Infantry Division landed and advanced on the Aslito airfield. Again the Japanese counter-attacked at night. On 18 June, Saito abandoned the airfield.

The invasion surprised the Japanese high command, which had been expecting an attack further south. Admiral Toyoda Soemu, commander-in-chief of the Japanese Navy, saw an opportunity to use the A-Go force to attack the U.S. Navy forces around Saipan. On 15 June, he gave the order to attack. But the resulting battle of the Philippine Sea was a disaster for the Imperial Japanese Navy, which lost three aircraft carriers and hundreds of planes. The garrisons of the Marianas would have no hope of resupply or reinforcement.

Without resupply, the battle on Saipan was hopeless for the defenders, but the Japanese were determined to fight to the last man. Saito organized his troops into a line anchored on Mount Tapotchau in the defensible mountainous terrain of central Saipan. The nicknames given by the Americans to the features of the battle—"Hell's Pocket", "Purple Heart Ridge" and "Death Valley"—indicate the severity of the fighting. The Japanese used the many caves in the volcanic landscape to delay the attackers, by hiding during the day and making sorties at night. The Americans gradually developed tactics for clearing the caves by using flamethrower teams supported by artillery and machine guns.

The operation was marred by inter-service controversy when Marine General Holland Smith, unsatisfied with the performance of the 27th Division, relieved its commander, Army General Ralph C. Smith. However, General Holland Smith had not inspected the terrain over which the 27th was to advance. Essentially it was a valley surrounded by hills and cliffs under Japanese control. The 27th took heavy casualties and eventually, under a plan developed by General Ralph Smith and implemented after his relief, had one battalion hold the area while two other battalions successfully flanked the Japanese.

By 7 July, the Japanese had nowhere to retreat. Saito made plans for a final suicidal banzai charge. On the fate of the remaining civilians on the island, Saito said, "There is no longer any distinction between civilians and troops. It would be better for them to join in the attack with bamboo spears than be captured." At dawn, with a group of 12 men carrying a great red flag in the lead, the remaining able-bodied troops—about 3,000 men-charged forward in the final attack. Amazingly, behind them came the wounded, with bandaged heads, crutches, and barely armed. The Japanese surged over the American front lines, engaging both Army and Marine units. The 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 105th U.S. Infantry were almost destroyed, losing 650 killed and wounded. However, the fierce resistance of these two battalions, as well as that of Headquarters Company, 105th Infantry, and elements of 3rd Battalion, 10th Marines (an artillery unit) resulted in over 4,300 Japanese killed. For their actions during the 15-hour Japanese attack, three men of the 105th Infantry were awarded the Medal of Honor-all posthumously. Numerous others fought the Japanese until they were overwhelmed by the largest Japanese Banzai attack in the Pacific War.

By 16:15 on 9 July, Admiral Turner announced that Saipan was officially secured. Saito-along with commanders Hirakushi and Igeta-committed suicide in a cave. Also committing suicide at the end of the battle was Vice-Admiral Chuichi Nagumo-the naval commander who led the Japanese carriers at Pearl Harbor and Midway Atoll-who had landed on Saipan to help lead the ground defense.

In the end, almost the entire garrison of troops on the island-at least 30,000-died. For the Americans, the victory was the most costly to date in the Pacific War. 2,949 Americans were killed and 10,364 wounded, out of 71,000 who landed. Among the wounded was the actor Lee Marvin. He was injured in the buttocks by Japanese fire which severed his sciatic nerve. He received a medical discharge.

Civilian casualties
Saipan had been seized by Japan after World War I, and thus a large number of Japanese civilians lived there—at least 25,000. The U.S. erected a civilian prisoner encampment on 23 June that soon had more than 1,000 inmates. Electric lights at the camp were conspicuously left on overnight to attract other civilians with the promise of three warm meals and no risk of accidentally being shot in combat.

Weapons and the tactics of close quarter fighting also resulted in high civilian casualties. Civilians shelters were located virtually everywhere on the island, with very little difference noticeable to attacking Marines. The standard method of clearing suspected bunkers was with high-explosive and/or high-explosives augmented with petroleum (e.g. gelignite, napalm, diesel fuel). In such conditions, high civilian casualties were inevitable.

Emperor Hirohito personally found the threat of defection of Japanese civilians disturbing. Much of the community was of low caste, and there was a risk that live civilians would be surprised by generous U.S. treatment. Native Japanese sympathizers would hand the Americans a powerful propaganda weapon to subvert the "fighting spirit" of Japan in radio broadcasts. At the end of June, Hirohito sent out an imperial order encouraging the civilians of Saipan to commit suicide.The order authorized the commander of Saipan to promise civilians who died there an equal spiritual status in the afterlife with those of soldiers perishing in combat. General Hideki Tojo intercepted the order on 30 June and delayed its sending, but it went out anyway the next day. By the time the Marines advanced on the north tip of the island, from 8–12 July, most of the damage had been done. Over 20,000 Japanese civilians committed suicide in the last days of the battle to take the offered privileged place in the afterlife, some jumping from "Suicide Cliff" and "Banzai Cliff". In all, about 22,000 Japanese civilians died.

Military Decorations
Harold G. Epperson
On 25 June 1944, PFC Harold G. Epperson, part of the 2nd Marine Division, threw himself on a grenade to contain the blast from killing members of his squad. For his bravery and sacrifice, PFC Epperson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Epperson's Medal of Honor was presented to his mother in a ceremony on Wednesday, 4 July 1945 in Tiger Stadium, Massillon, Ohio.

Ben L. Salomon
On 7 July 1944, Captain Ben L. Salomon, the battalion surgeon of 2nd Battalion, 105th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division aided the evacuation of wounded soldiers. After defending his patients from four Japanese soldiers, he manned a machine gun post and effectively repelled numerous enemy forces to enable the evacuation of wounded personnel. When his body was recovered after the battle, 98 dead Japanese soldiers were found in front of his position. For gallantry in battle, Captain Ben L. Salomon was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in May 2002. Salomon was the third Jewish service member to be awarded the Medal of Honor during World War II.

Guy Gabaldon
PFC Guy Gabaldon, a Mexican-American from Los Angeles, is officially credited with capturing more than 1,000 Japanese prisoners during the battle. PFC Gabaldon, who was raised by Japanese-Americans, used a combination of street Japanese and guile to convince soldiers and civilians alike that U.S. troops were not barbarians, and that they would be well treated upon surrender. For his outstanding bravery, Gabaldon received a Silver Star, which was upgraded to the Navy Cross. During the war, his commanders had requested that he receive the Medal of Honor for his actions; however, his initial award was the Silver Star. In 1998, efforts were re-initiated to secure the Medal of Honor for PFC Gabaldon. The effort is ongoing.[

2011-07-08T04:37:00.002-06:00

History
1st Marine Division
The 1st Marine Division is a marine infantry division of the United States Marine Corps headquartered at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. It is a subordinate unit of the I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF).

It is the oldest and largest active duty division in the United States Marine Corps, representing a combat-ready force of more than 19,000 men and women. It is one of three active duty divisions in the Marine Corps today and is a multi-role, expeditionary ground combat force. It is nicknamed "The Old Breed".

Mission
The division is employed as the ground combat element (GCE) of the I Marine Expeditionary Force or may provide task-organized forces for assault operations and such operations as may be directed. The 1st Marine Division must be able to provide the ground amphibious forcible entry capability to the naval expeditionary force (NEF) and to conduct subsequent land operations in any operational environment.

World War II
The 1st Marine Division was activated aboard the USS Texas on 1 February 1941. The division's units were scattered over the Pacific with the support elements and the 1st Marine Regiment transported en route to New Zealand on three ships, the USATs Ericsson, Barnett and Elliott from Naval Reserve Air Base Oakland to New Zealand, and later were landed on the island of Guadalcanal, part of the Solomon Islands, on 7 August 1942.

Initially only the 7th Marine Regiment was in garrison on British Samoa, with the 5th Marine Regiment having just encamped at Wellington, New Zealand after disembarking from USAT Wakefield, and the 1st Marine Regiment not scheduled to arrive in New Zealand until 11 July. The 1st Raider Battalion was on New Caledonia, and the 3rd Defense Battalion was in Pearl Harbor. All of the division's units, with the 11th Marines (artillery) and 75mm howitzer armed 10th Marines battalion would rendezvous at Fiji.

Due to the change in orders and shortage of attack and combat cargo vessels, all of the division's 2.5 ton trucks, M1918 155-mm howitzers and the sound and flash-ranging equipment needed for counter-battery fire had to be left in Wellington. Also, because the Wellington dock workers were on strike at the time, the Marines had to do all the load reconfiguration from administrative to combat configuration.

After 11 days of unparalleled dockside logistic mayhem, the division, with 16,000 Marines, departed Wellington in eighty-nine ships embarked for the Solomon Islands with 60-day combat load, no tents, spare clothing or bed rolls, no office equipment, unit muster rolls or pay clerks. Other things not yet available to this first wave of Marine deployments were insect repellent and mosquito netting. Attached to the division was the 1st Parachute Battalion which along with the rest of the division conducted landing rehearsals from the 28th to the 30 July on Koro Island which General Vandergrift described as a "disaster".

On 31 July the entire Marine task force came under command of Vice Admiral Frank J. Fletcher's Task Force 61. The division as a whole would fight in the Battle of Guadalcanal until relieved at 1400 on 9 December 1942 by Alexander Patch's Americal Division. This operation won the Division its first of three World War II Presidential Unit Citations (PUC). The battle would cost the division 650 killed in action, 1,278 wounded in action with a further 8,580 contracting malaria and 31 missing in action. Others were awarded for the battles of Peleliu and Okinawa.

Following the Battle of Guadalcanal, the division's Marines were sent to Melbourne, Australia to rest and refit. It was during this time that the division took the traditional Australian folk song "Waltzing Matilda" as its battle hymn. To this day, 1st Division Marines still ship out to this song being played.

The division would next see action during Operation Cartwheel which was the codename for the campaigns in Eastern New Guinea and New Britain. They came ashore at the Battle of Cape Gloucester on 26 December 1943 and fought on New Britain until February 1944 at such places as Suicide Creek and Ajar Ridge. During the course of the battle the division had 310 killed and 1,083 wounded. Following the battle they were sent to Pavuvu in the Russell Islands for rest and refitting.

The next battle for the 1st Marine Division would be the bloodiest yet at the Battle of Peleliu. They landed on 15 September 1944 as part of the III Amphibious Corps assault on the island. The division's commanding general, Major General William H. Rupertus had predicted the fighting would be, "...tough but short. It'll be over in three or four days – a fight like Tarawa. Rough but fast. Then we can go back to a rest area. Making a mockery of the prediction, the first week of the battle alone cost the division 3,946 casualties, during which time they secured the key airfield sites. The division fought on Peleliu for one month before being relieved. Some of the heaviest fighting of the entire war took place in places such as Bloody Nose Ridge and the central ridges of the island that made up the Umurbrogol Pocket. The month of fighting against the 14th Division (Imperial Japanese Army) on Peleliu cost the 1st Marine Division 1,252 dead and 5,274 wounded.

The final campaign the division would take part in during World War II would be the Battle of Okinawa. The strategic importance of Okinawa was that it provided a fleet anchorage, troop staging areas, and airfields in close proximity to Japan. The division landed on 1 April 1945 as part of the III Amphibious Corps. Its initial mission was, fighting alongside the 6th Marine Division, to clear the northern half of the island – that they were able to do expeditiously. The Army's XXIV Corps met much stiffer resistance in the south, and in late April the Marine division was moved south where it relieved the Army's 27th Infantry Division. The division was in heavy fighting on Okinawa until 21 June 1945, when the island was declared secure. The 1st Marine Division slugged it out with the Japanese 32nd Army at such places as Dakeshi Ridge, Wana Ridge, "Sugarloaf Hill" and Shuri Castle. Fighting on Okinawa cost the division 1,655 killed in action.

Following the surrender of Japan, the division was sent to Northern China as the lead combat element of the III Amphibious Corps with the primary mission of repatriating more than 650,000 Japanese soldiers and civilians still resident in that part of China. They landed at Taku on 30 September 1945 and would be based in Hopeh Province in the cities of Tientsin and Peiping with the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party raging around them. Most Marines in the division would be charged with guarding supply trains, bridges and depots to keep food and coal moving into the cities. During this time they increasingly fought skirmishes with soldiers from the People's Liberation Army who saw the railways and other infrastructure as attractive targets to ambush, raid, and harass.

By the summer of 1946 the division was suffering the effects of demobilization and its combat efficiency had dropped below wartime standards; however, its commitments in China remained. As it became increasingly apparent that a complete collapse of truce negotiations among the Chinese factions was apparent, plans were laid for the withdrawal of all Marine units from Hopeh. The last elements of the division finally left China on 1 September 1947.

Korean War
Following the end of World War II and the postwar draw down of forces, by 1950 the division only possessed the strength of a reinforced regimental combat team. The division would be assembled on the battle field and would participate in the amphibious assault at Inchon under the orders of General MacArthur. "The Old Breed" was the unit chosen to lead the Inchon landing on 15 September 1950. At Inchon, the division faced one of its most daunting challenges, deploying so hurriedly it still lacked its third infantry regiment and ordered to execute an amphibious assault in a city the size of Omaha, Nebraska under the worst tidal conditions they had ever faced. After the landing they moved north and after heavy fighting in Seoul they liberated the city.

After the liberation of Seoul, the division was put back on ships and taken to the eastern side of the Korean peninsula and put ashore at Wonsan. As part of X Corps commanded by Army Major General Edward Almond the division was ordered to push north towards the Yalu River as fast as possible. The then commanding officer of the division, Major General O.P. Smith, did not agree with his superiors and had become convinced that they were stretched thin and that the Chinese Forces had entered the war. He purposely slowed his advance and consolidated along the way at every opportunity. The 1st Marine Division was attacked by ten Chinese infantry divisions on 27 November 1950. They fought their way out of the Chosin Reservoir against seven Communist Chinese divisions suffering over 900 killed and missing, over 3,500 wounded and more than 6,500 non-battle casualties mostly from frostbite during the battle. The greater part of the Chinese 9th Army was rendered ineffective as they suffered an estimated 37,500 casualties trying to stop the Marines' march out of the "Frozen Chosin".

Beginning in early 1951 the division participated in several UN (UN) offensives in east-central Korea. This was followed by defending against the Chinese spring offensive composed of over 500,000 troops. By June 1951 the 1st Marine Division had pushed northward and secured the terrain around the Punchbowl and then settled into a defensive line 11 miles long.

In mid-March 1952 the 8th Army, to whom the Marines were attached, instituted Operation Mixmaster. The operation was a massive redeployment of UN forces designed to put more South Korean Army units on the Main Line of Resistance (MLR). The 1st Marine Division was reassigned to the far western end of the United Nations line defending a 35-mile line that encompassed the Pyongyang to Seoul corridor. For much of the next year, in what would be termed the "Outpost War", action along this line consisted of small, localized actions because much of the fighting revolved around the holding and retaking of various combat outposts along key pieces of terrain. This changed in March 1953 when the Chinese launched a massive offensive across the U.N. line. The heavy fighting continued until the Armistice took effect on 27 July 1953. During the Korean War the division suffered combat casualties of 4,004 dead and 25,864 wounded.

Vietnam War
In 1965, the 7th Marine Regiment participated in Operations Starlite and Piranha, the first major engagements for American ground troops in South Vietnam. March 1966 saw 1st Marine Division Headquarters established at Chu Lai. By June, the entire Division was in South Vietnam, its zone of operation—the southern two provinces of I Corps—Quang Tin and Quang Ngai. Between March and October 1966 to May 1967, the division conducted 44 named operations. During the 1968 Tet Offensive, the division was involved in fierce fighting with both Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army elements. It was successful in beating back enemy assaults in its operation areas. The division received its 7th Presidential Unit Citation for service from 29 March 1966 to 15 September 1967. and an 8th one for the period 16 September 1967 to 31 October 1968.

After six hard years of combat, the 1st Marine Division returned home to Camp Pendleton in 1971. In 1975, the division supported the evacuation of Saigon by providing food and temporary shelter at Camp Pendleton for Vietnamese refugees as they arrived in the United States.

Desert Shield/Storm
In 1990, the 1st Marine Division formed the nucleus of the massive force sent to Southwest Asia in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. During Operation Desert Shield, the division supported I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) in the defense of Saudi Arabia from the Iraqi threat. In 1991, the division went on the offensive with the rest of Coalition Forces in Operation Desert Storm. In 100 hours of ground offensive combat, the 1st Marine Division helped to liberate Kuwait, defeating the Iraqi Army in the process.

Iraq War
The 1st Marine Division, then under the command of Major General James Mattis, was one of the two major U.S. land forces that participated in the 2003 invasion of Iraq as the land component of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. In December 2002, MajGen Mattis was quoted as saying, "The President, the National Command Authority and the American people need speed. The sooner we get it over with the better. Our overriding principle will be speed, speed, speed. Initially, the division fought through the Rumaila oil fields, feinted an attack towards Basrah then moved north on Iraq Highway 1 to An Nasariyah – a moderate-sized, Shi'ite dominated city with important strategic significance as a major road junction and proximity to nearby Talil Airfield. The division then fought its way to Baghdad and pushed further to secure Tikrit by forming Task Force Tripoli after the fall of Baghdad. The division covered 808 kilometers in 17 days of sustained combat, the deepest penetrating ground operation in Marine Corps history. After the invasion the division settled in to conduct security and stabilization operations in Baghdad, Tikrit, and then in south-central Iraq from May to October 2003. For actions during the war as part of I MEF the division was awarded its 9th Presidential Unit Citation.

The division returned to Iraq in February 2004 and took control of the Al Anbar province in western Iraq; it was the lead unit in Operation Vigilant Resolve and Operation Phantom Fury in 2004. During February and March 2005, the division was relieved by the 2nd Marine Division concluding the largest relief in place in the history of the Marine Corps. In 2006, the division again deployed to Iraq as the ground combat element for I MEF in the Al Anbar province. It returned to MCB Camp Pendleton in early 2007.

Afghanistan War
Battalions from the 1st Marine Division have been deploying to Afghanistan regularly since 2008. The division headquarters and staff were sent forward in March 2010 to take command of all Marine forces in the Helmand Province operating in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. This will be a year-long deployment for the division.

Insignia
Originally termed a battle blaze, the shoulder sleeve insignia of the 1st Marine Division was designed by Lt. Col Merrill Twining, Division D-3 in February 1943 while the division was stationed in Victoria, Australia. The blue diamond with the Southern Cross is similar to the Flag of Victoria. The red numeral one in the middle denotes the division's first action on Guadalcanal. A commercial firm in Melbourne first produced the shoulder patch with every Marine issued two of them that was sewn on his battle jacket.

The 2nd Marine Division originally had a similar battle blaze of the same design with a red snake in the shape of a "2" also reading GUADALCANAL.

Marine Corps shoulder sleeve insignia were officially authorised on 15 March 1943. Some in the division who served on Guadalcanal wore their "battle blaze" on the right shoulder to distinguish themselves from replacements who hadn't been on "The Canal".

2011-07-03T13:33:00.004-06:00

Edward H. Ahrens
Private First Class Edward Henry Ahrens (November 4, 1919 – August 8, 1942) served in the Marine Raiders in the Battle of Guadalcanal.

Biography
Ahrens - born on November 4, 1919 in Dayton, Kentucky - enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on February 3, 1942 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and underwent boot camp training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina. He transferred to the Marine Barracks Quantico, Virginia on March 16, 1942.

Assigned to Company "A", 1st Raider Battalion, Fleet Marine Force, soon thereafter, Ahrens landed with that unit from USS Little (APD-4) at Tulagi, Guadalcanal, British Solomon Islands, in the second assault wave on August 7, 1942. With Company "C", 1st Raider Battalion, securing the right flank on the beachhead, Company "A" moved inland and down the right slope of Tulagi's central ridge. Initially, the Marines were not opposed.

That evening, Company "A" took positions for the night west of a cricket ground on the island, as part of the defensive line extending along the ridge. The Japanese later launched a fierce nocturnal counterattack which drove a wedge between the two Raider companies. Isolating the latter near the beachhead, the enemy concentrated his efforts on Company "A" in an attempt to sweep up the ridge toward the residency, a former British government building serving as a Raider battalion command post. The Raiders, however, stood firm.

During the savage battle that ensued, Ahrens, in a security detachment assigned the task of protecting the Raiders' right flank, singlehandedly engaged a group of Japanese in hand-to-hand combat as they attempted to infiltrate the Raiders' rear.

At morning's first light, Major Lew Walt walked his lines to assess Able Company's condition. "I came across a foxhole occupied by Private First Class Ahrens, a small man of about 140 pounds...He was slumped in one corner of the foxhole covered with blood from head to foot. In the foxhole with him were two dead Japs, a lieutenant and a sergeant. There were eleven more dead Japs on the ground in front of his position. In his hands he clutched the dead officer's sword."

Ahrens was dying from multiple gunshot and stab wounds. His last whispered words, according to Walt: "The bastards tried to come over me last night-I guess they didn't know I was a Marine." Private First Class Edward H. Ahrens, twenty-two, unmarried, from Dayton, Kentucky, died in Major Walt's arms.

Awards and decorations
For his part in stopping the enemy, Ahrens—who died of his wounds on August 8,—was posthumously awarded a Navy Cross, as well as the Presidential Unit Citation earned by the 1st Marine Division.

2011-06-19T10:25:00.005-06:00

Independence Day
Happy 235th Birthday America
The Declaration House
In June of 1776, Thomas Jefferson was part of a Virginia delegation that planned to ask the Second Continental Congress to sever its ties from Great Britain. While that historic body was meeting, Jefferson was assigned to a committee that was asked to write a declaration which enumerated the causes that led to that severance.

Finding his lodging in the heart of the city uncomfortable, he removed to the rooms of Jacob Graff. Mr. Graff was a well-known bricklayer who had built his house on the outskirts of town but a year before Jefferson arrived. It's probable that Jefferson had to pay a little extra for the rooms as they came furnished. The Graffs lived in the house while Jefferson undertook his task. Situated on the outskirts of town, surrounded by fields and a stable across the street, the house provided Jefferson with the space and distance from the city he needed for his task.

Working from the Virginia Constitution as well as an extensive knowledge of political theory Jefferson wrote the document in under three weeks. An author at heart, Jefferson squirmed in resentment as the document was redacted during the final week of June 1776 by his fellow delegates to the Second Continental Congress.

Many people believe the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, because that is the day the United States celebrates independence. This is untrue.

Richard Lee proposed the Declaration of Independence to the Continental Congress on June 7, 1776. The Committee of Five (Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Robert Livingston and Thomas Jefferson) began work on June 11. Jefferson wrote the first draft, and the other members of the committee suggested revisions and edits. They presented the completed document to the Continental Congress on June 28, and the Congress passed the resolution on July 2, 1776.

The Declaration of Independence wasn't signed on the 4th of July; the Continental Congress gathered to vote on whether the wording should be corrected or should stay the same. According to some historians, they hurried the process due to the fact that they were overrun by horseflies from the neighboring farm. The first signatures were added in August of 1776 and finished on Jan 18th 1777.

The Declaration of Independence consisted of two parts, a preamble and a bill of particulars. The preamble is the part we generally read. The bill of particulars was a list of almost 2,000 items. Jefferson thought it would be approved on the July 2, but Congress simply made amendments to the bill of particulars. It was finally approved on July 4, 1776 when delegates started signing it.

John Adams wrote a letter to his wife, Abigail Adams, about the approval:
"The Second of July, 1776, will be the most memorable in the history of America. I am apt to believe it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the Great Anniversary Celebration."

John Adams wrote to Abigail again on July 3, 1776:
Yesterday the greatest Question was decided, which ever was debated in America, and a greater perhaps, never was or will be decided among Men. A Resolution was passed without one dissenting Colony "that these united Colonies, are, and of right ought to be free and independent States, and as such, they have, and of Right ought to have full Power to make War, conclude Peace, establish Commerce, and to do all the other Acts and Things, which other States may rightfully do."You will see in a few days a Declaration setting forth the Causes, which have impell'd Us to this mighty Revolution, and the Reasons which will justify it, in the Sight of God and Man. A Plan of Confederation will be taken up in a few days. On July 2, 1776 the Association known as United Colonies of America officially became the United States of America.

So when was it signed?

Most delegates signed the document on August 2, when a clean copy was finally produced by Timothy Matlack, assistant to the secretary of Congress.

Several did not sign until later. And their names were not released to the public until later still, January 1777.

FAST-FORWARD: On this special day in 1800, the Marine Corps Band played its first public appearance at Tun Tavern, Philadelphia. The Marine Corps Band under the original leadership of Drum Major William Farr was established by the second Marine Corps Commandant, William Ward Burrows. The Marine Corps Band with leadership of John Philip Sousa and other great band leaders, has always been considered the best of the military - it became known as "The President's Own."

William Ward Burrows—born in South Carolina on 16 January 1758—was described by a contemporary, Washington Irving, as a "gentlemen of accomplished mind and polished manner."

Burrows served with the state troops of South Carolina in the American Revolution, before he moved to Philadelphia. There, on 12 July 1798, he was made Commandant of the Marine Corps—newly established by President John Adams.

Commandant Burrows also had a son, Lt. William Ward Burrows II (6 October 1785 - 5 September 1813), was an officer in the United States Navy during the First Barbary War and the War of 1812.

The first Marine Corps units to be organized by the industrious new commandant were those that served in the ships of the fledgling United States Navy. During the first seven months in which Burrows held the office of commandant, the United States embarked on the Quasi-War with the French Republic.

At that time, the headquarters of the Corps was at Philadelphia, then the capital of the country. In addition to organizing his headquarters staff and securing a barracks for transient personnel.

On 4 July 1800, that musical organization first appeared in public at Tun Tavern, in probably the last social function attended by marines while they retained their headquarters at Philadelphia. Burrows reached Washington, D.C., on 15 July, to establish the new Marine Corps headquarters there in the wake of an advance detachment sent down in March to protect the Washington Navy Yard, then under construction.

The remainder of the Marines in Philadelphia were soon shifted down to Washington, and during that time, Burrows received a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel Commandant.

Although the Quasi-War with France continued into the autumn of 1800, Congressional pressure to reduce the cost of a naval establishment frustrated some of Burrows' efforts to establish the Marine Corps on a solid, permanent footing. Nevertheless, the Corps was able to weather the storm because another armed conflict, the Barbary Wars, highlighted the nation's need for Marines.

Burrows resigned his post as Commandant for health reasons on 6 March 1804, and he died exactly one year later, on 6 March 1805. Under his leadership, the United States Marine Corps gained a firm and enduring foundation upon which succeeding leaders built the Corps of later years.

2011-06-12T05:01:00.008-06:00

Father's Day
Before reminding you of Father's Day history, I will tell you that I am a new father at my age of 85. She was born on January 16, 2011, and she is as pretty as a princess. I named her Princess Bella. It's great to be a new father again.

Father's Day is a celebration honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. It is celebrated on the third Sunday of June in many countries and on other days elsewhere. It complements Mother's Day, the celebration honoring mothers.

History
Father's Day is a celebration of fathers inaugurated in the early twentieth century to complement Mother's Day in celebrating fatherhood and male parenting. Father's Day is celebrated on a variety of dates worldwide and typically involves gift-giving, special dinners to fathers, and family-oriented activities.

The first observance of Father's Day actually took place in Fairmont, West Virginia on July 5, 1908. It was organized by Mrs. Grace Golden Clayton, who wanted to celebrate the lives of the 210 fathers who had been lost in the Monongah Mining disaster several months earlier in Monongah, West Virginia, on December 6, 1907. It's possible that Clayton was influenced by the first celebration of Mother's Day that same year, just a few miles away. Clayton chose the Sunday nearest to the birthday of her recently deceased father.

Unfortunately, the day was overshadowed by other events in the city, West Virginia did not officially register the holiday, and it was not celebrated again. All the credit for Father's Day went to Sonora Dodd, who invented independently her own celebration of Father's Day just two years later, also influenced by Jarvis' Mother's Day.

Clayton's celebration was forgotten until 1972, when one of the attendants to the celebration saw Nixon's proclamation of Father's Day, and worked to recover its legacy. The celebration is now held every year in the Central United Methodist Church – the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was torn down in 1922. Fairmont is now promoted as the "Home of the First Father's Day Service".

A bill to accord national recognition of the holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson went to Spokane to speak in a Father's Day celebration and wanted to make it official, but Congress resisted, fearing that it would become commercialized. US President Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924 that the day be observed by the nation, but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation. Two earlier attempts to formally recognize the holiday had been defeated by Congress. In 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a proposal accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers, thus "[singling] out just one of our two parents" In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972.

In addition to Father's Day, International Men's Day is celebrated in many countries on November 19 for men and boys who are not fathers.

Commercialization
The Associated Men's Wear Retailers formed a National Father's Day Committee in New York City in the 1930s, which was renamed in 1938 to National Council for the Promotion of Father's Day and incorporated several other trade groups. This council had the goals of legitimizing the holiday in the mind of the people and managing the holiday as a commercial event in a more systematic way, in order to boost the sales during the holiday. This council always had the support of Dodd, who had no problem with the commercialization of the holiday and endorsed several promotions to increase the amount of gifts. In this aspect she can be considered the opposite of Anna Jarvis, who actively opposed all commercialization of Mother's Day.

The merchants recognized the tendency to parody and satirize the holiday, and used it to their benefit by mocking the holiday on the same advertisements where they promoted the gifts for fathers. People felt compelled to buy gifts even though they saw through the commercial façade, and the custom of giving gifts on that day became progressively more accepted. By 1937 the Father's Day Council calculated that only one father in six had received a present on that day. However, by the 1980s, the Council proclaimed that they had achieved their goal: the one-day event had become a three-week commercial event, a "second Christmas". Its executive director explained back in 1949 that, without the coordinated efforts of the Council and of the groups supporting it, the holiday would have disappeared.

Spelling
Although the name of the event is usually understood as a plural possessive (i.e. "day belonging to fathers"), which would under normal English punctuation guidelines be spelled "Fathers' Day," the most common spelling is "Father's Day," as if it were a singular possessive (i.e. "day belonging to Father"). In the United States, Dodd used the "Fathers' Day" spelling on her original petition for the holiday, but the spelling "Father's Day" was already used in 1913 when a bill was introduced to the U.S. Congress as the first attempt to establish the holiday, and it was still spelled the same way when its creator was commended in 2008 by the U.S. Congress.

2011-06-09T03:55:00.004-06:00

William Blount
(The present Tennessee U.S. Senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker would not have qualified to have been William Blount's water-boy.)

William Blount, (April 6, 1749 – March 21, 1800) was a United States statesman. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention for North Carolina, the first and only governor of the Southwest Territory, and Democratic-Republican Senator from Tennessee (1796–1797). He played a major role in establishing the state of Tennessee. He was the first U.S. Senator to be expelled from the Senate for treason and the only Senator expelled outside of the Civil War.

Early life and Revolutionary War
Blount was born near Windsor, North Carolina, in Bertie County into a family of distinguished merchants and planters who owned extensive properties along the banks of the Pamlico River.

During the Revolutionary War, Blount accepted appointment as the regimental paymaster for the 3rd North Carolina Regiment. Although a regimental paymaster was not a commissioned officer with command responsibility on the battlefield, Blount served under a warrant on the regimental staff and drew the same pay and allowances as a captain. He also participated in the regiment's march north in the late spring of 1777 when it joined Washington's main army in defense of Philadelphia against Sir William Howe's Royal forces. Blount and his comrades had participated in one of the key battles of the war. By demonstrating Washington's willingness to fight and the Continental Army's recuperative powers, the battle convinced France that the Americans were in the war to the end and directly influenced France's decision to support the Revolution openly.

After the battle, Blount returned home to become chief paymaster of state forces and later deputy paymaster general for North Carolina. For the next three years he remained intimately involved in the demanding task of recruiting and reequipping forces to be used in support both of Washington's main army in the north and of separate military operations in defense of the southern tier of states.

The fall of Charleston, South Carolina, to British forces under Sir Henry Clinton in May 1780 exposed North Carolina to invasion. The state again faced the difficult task of raising new units, this time to counter a force of British, Hessian, and Loyalist troops under General Charles Cornwallis. Blount not only helped organize these citizen-soldiers but also took to the field with them. His North Carolina unit served under General Horatio Gates, who hastily engaged Cornwallis in a bloody battle at Camden, South Carolina. On August 16, Gates deployed his units – his continentals to the right, the North Carolina and Virginia militia on his left flank – and ordered an advance. The American soldiers were exhausted from weeks of marching and insufficient rations. Furthermore, the militia elements had only recently joined with the regulars, and disciplined teamwork between the two components had not yet been achieved. Such teamwork was especially necessary before hastily assembled militia units could be expected to perform the intricate infantry maneuvers of 18th century linear warfare. While the Continentals easily advanced against the enemy, the militia quickly lost their cohesion in the smoke and confusion, and their lines crumbled before the counterattacking British. Cornwallis then shifted all his forces against the continentals. In less than an hour Gates' army had been lost. This second defeat in the South, the result of inadequate preparations, provided the young Blount a lesson that would stand him in good stead in later years. It also marked the end of Blount's active military career.

Governor of Southwest Territory
Blount was appointed Governor of the Territory South of the Ohio River (the Southwest Territory) by President George Washington in 1790. Blount governed from the home of William Cobb, Rocky Mount, located in current Piney Flats, Tennessee. After concluding the Treaty of Holston, he announced that the territorial capital would move to newly founded Knoxville. Blount named Knoxville after the first Secretary of War, Henry Knox. After moving to Knoxville, construction began on his mansion, known as Blount Mansion, in 1792. The mansion still stands in downtown Knoxville and is a popular museum.

Blount's political offices
* Member of North Carolina state house of commons 1780–1784, and briefly, its Speaker
* Member of the Continental Congress in 1782–1783 and 1786–1787
* Delegate to the Philadelphia Convention that framed the U.S. Constitution in 1787 (and signer of the document)
* North Carolina state senator 1788–1790
* Governor of the Southwest Territory, appointed by President George Washington in 1790, where he brought George Roulstone to Rogersville to print Tennessee's first newspaper, The Knoxville Gazette
* Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southern Department 1790–1796
* Chairman of the convention which framed the first State constitution of Tennessee 1796
* U.S. Senator from Tennessee 1796–1797
* Tennessee state senator 1798–1800

U.S. Senate
While serving as U.S. Senator, Blount's affairs took a sharp turn for the worse. In 1797 his land speculations in western lands led him into serious financial difficulties. That same year, he apparently concocted a plan to incite the Creek and Cherokee Indians to aid the British in conquering the Spanish territory of West Florida. A letter he wrote alluding to the plan fell into the hands of President John Adams, who turned it over to the Senate on July 3, 1797. Four days later, on July 7, the United States House of Representatives voted to impeach Blount and on July 8 the Senate voted 25 to 1 to expel him from the Senate. The Senate began an impeachment trial on December 17, 1798, but dropped charges two months later on the grounds that no further action could be taken beyond his expulsion. That set an important precedent for the future with regard to the limitations on actions which could be taken by Congress against its members and former members.

The episode did not seem to hamper Blount's career in Tennessee. In 1798 he was elected to the Tennessee State Senate and rose to the speakership. He died two years later at Knoxville, where he is buried in the cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church.

Legacy
In 1792, while governor of the Southwest Territory, Blount built the William Blount Mansion in Knoxville. The mansion is a National Historic Landmark.

Blount County, Tennessee, is named after Blount, as is the town of Blountville, Tennessee. Grainger County, Tennessee, and Maryville, Tennessee, are both named after his wife, Mary Grainger Blount. William Blount High School, William Blount Middle School, and Mary Blount Elementary School are named after Blount and his wife. (Blount County, Alabama, is named after his younger half-brother Willie Blount, later governor of Tennessee). Raleigh, North Carolina, has a street named after Blount going though the center of its downtown.

Blount was the father of William Grainger Blount (1784–1827), Tennessee state representative and U.S. Representative from Tennessee, 1815-1819. He was half-brother of Willie Blount (1767–1835), Governor of Tennessee, 1809-1815. He was brother to Thomas Blount (1759–1812), Revolutionary War veteran and U.S. Representative from North Carolina, 1793–1799, 1805–1809 and 1811-1812.