Long, Obstinate, and Bloody.

A good title!

235 years ago today my 5 times Great-grandfather and his sons stood in the militia line of Natty Green's Southern Army to fire at the king's army.  I walked the ground for myself in April 2013.  You can take a walk via this C-SPAN video.  There was an anniversary reenactment last Saturday and historical events.  Cool.  The United Sates Army Center for History has a good account of the battle.

The battle is key, because the cost of the fight leads Lord Cornwallis to move North.  Eventually placing his army on a peninsula at a place named Yorktown.

"I never saw such fighting since God made me. The Americans fought like demons"
 -- Lt. General Charles, Earl Cornwallis.

After the war some of the sons received the land bounty for service from the State of North Carolina and moved Westward and settled a place called Tennessee.

'Hey, the flag's up on the mountain.'

71 years ago today Joe Rosenthal snapped that famous photo and didn't know for sure what he had.  5th Division movie cameraman Sgt. Bill Genaust captured it on film.  This was the second flag raising, the first was a smaller flag replaced by this larger one later in the day.

71 years ago today. . .

The Marines landed on Iwo Jima 19FEB45.

World War Two is called "The Last Just War."  It has been famously said to have been fought by "The Greatest Generation."  If these are both true, then we must intentionally look back and reflect on the men who fought, bled and died for the freedom of the world.  Our entire world is a product of that victory.

Any Questions?

It is important as a nation, as a society that we remember those moments in our history.  The what we did, where it happened, why we did it and how we did it.  Iwo Jima is iconic in our memories of the Pacific War.  It is not a battle of maneuver and finesse, it is a battle of attrition.  A slugfest against a prepared enemy determined to kill as many Americans as possible to influence America public opinion.  Later enemies used similar methods to victory against us.  The flag raising on Suribachi captured on film by Joe Rosenthal, published so widely and used as a rallying point for a War not yet over and a cost not yet paid in blood and treasure.

Happy Birthday Mr. President.

It's Presidents Day, or should we say President's Day?  It depends on where you are.  The federal holiday was originally established to commemorate the birthday of George Washington, but like all these days it has been diluted from its origin and migrated to fit a different need.  George Washington was born February 22nd.

Poster circa 1890.

It is George Washington who established the precedent that he be referred to as "Mr. President", foregoing anything that smacked of royalty.  He was the original action hero.  The Journal of the American Revolution has a wonderful post about the General up this morning The Carefree and Kindhearted General Washington.

Happy birthday to George Washington, soldier, statesman, leader and father of our country.

Monday Monday

Monday Monday.  The National Weather Service has forecast a "Hyrdologic" Event for today.  Meaning it is a rainy Monday morning here in the Tualatin River Valley.

We should start with history. . .December 7th, 1941, a day which will live in infamy. . .Nothing on Oregonlive.com front page.  Timbers-Timbers-Timbers!  It is some sports team.  Remember Pearl Harbor was the cry.  Almost gone are the generation that fought that war to keep the world free from socialist totalitarians and their minions.  America is a different country from the one they came home to, worked hard and built up.  Different.  Some would say unrecognizable to that generation.  Better, worse?  I will simply say different.

I have heard last week the DoD opened all MOS to women.  Terminal Lance has a greeting for you, welcome to the suck ladies.

See Something, Say Something. . .

"What can I do" is the question people might ask.  I say might, because many go through life in a state of normalcy bias, without seeing much of what is seen or unseen.  But the question remains.  See Something, Say Something simply did not apply in this San Bernardino action. Why? Societal castration?  Perhaps, more likely cognitive dissonance resulting from normalcy bias.

From our friends at WikiPedia:
"People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation."

Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance focuses on how humans strive for internal consistency. An individual who experiences inconsistency (dissonance) tends to become psychologically uncomfortable, and is motivated to try to reduce this dissonance—as well as actively avoid situations and information likely to increase it

See Something, and then subconsciously say no I didn't see that.  In that state there is nothing that person can do.  Is there?

On this date in 1947. . .

Paris and America.

So many things have been said about Paris and the attack on November 13th.  Most have been disappointing.  The thing of it is we should not be looking for "Them" to be sneaking in during the dead of night, "Them" are already here and have been for quite some time now.

St. Crispian's Day

Agincourt, and fair Harry the King.

This day is called the feast of Crispin:
He that outlives this day and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispin.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say, ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispin:’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say, ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words,
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be rememberèd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England, now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

Saturday Night Movie - The Way Ahead.

Saturday Night Movie - The Way Ahead 1944.

It is a British wartime propaganda film.  It's message is straight forward: It is going to take all of us to win.  The movie follows a group of men called up from civilian life. Suddenly thrust into the soldier's life, they don't like it. . .You follow their transformation from whiny recruit to cohesive rifle platoon.  Led by their platoon leader David Niven and their platoon sergeant, a pre-war regular, they train and deploy to Tunisia.  The movie ends in their first fight against the retreating Afrika Korps.

None of them are wounded or killed.  The characters are simple, but the diversity would allow the British wartime audience to find someone they could connect and empathize with.  Which is the intent.

Overall a good simple WW2 flick.

VJ Day - 70 Years Ago Today.

Today is the 70th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day.  I did not see anything locally about this.  There was one article in the Hillsboro Argus about the local Congressional representative presenting a 94 year old woman with medals.  The woman had enlisted in the Women's Army Corps in 1943 and serving in the United States Army until her retirement in 1972 attaining the rank of Sergeant Major.  Nice story.

What about it?  VJ Day.

Here is a video from the Royal British Legion, the best I've seen for the 70th.  Watch it, listen and hear the voices.  Both what they say and what the speaker feels.

"...one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind"

46 years ago today Neil Armstrong uttered those words as he stepped out onto the Lunar surface.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html

Cesar Chavez Day

Yep, today marks the birthday of Cesar Chavez, organizer/founder/voice of the United Farm Workers Union in California's central valley.  He was an American you know, a veteran (a squid) of World War Two.  He was a classic organizer of the Chicago School.  When ranchers brought in scabs to cross the UFW picket lines, he called Immigration and they were deported back to Mexico.  What?  Yes, Cesar Chavez was an American union organizer, organizing for American Union workers.  He and Dolores Huerta fought the Braceros Program and as a result of their efforts Congress ended it in 1964.  Political expediency. The thing is this, those first grape workers in Delano, California that struck for the UFW were Filipino-Americans. . .Interesting hmmm?

Try and get that straight.  Doesn't fit the current societal narrative does it?  John Adams said of the massacre trial "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

Return To Iwo Jima

Good article over at the BBC.  Wood Williams (Cpl USMC, MoH) was one of the veterans attending.  So was Tsuruji Akikusa, an 18 year old radio operator in the Japanese Navy in February, 1945.  The article talks about Mr. Akikusa's experience being wounded in the initial Naval bombardment, and eventual capture in a semi-conscious state at the end of April.  A bit of BBC we (USA) are the bad guys slant to it of course.  Good to see Woody Williams doing well!

Semper Fi.

240 Years Ago Today - Give me liberty, or give me death!

Two hundred and forty years ago today, Patrick Henry delivered his great speech to the Second Virginia Convention on the rights of the colonies. They were meeting not at the capitol Williamsburg, but farther inland in Richmond to put some distance between themselves and Lord Dunmore and his Marines.  Concluding with the declarative statement "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" It became a rallying cry of the American Revolution.

The text of the speech is available at Colonial Williamsburg's site.  Some of the information presented there is skewed with the post-modern, progressive interpretation, but you can get the gist of things.

The Mecklenburg Declaration

Interesting post from the Journal of the American Revolution on the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.  Some, Thomas Jefferson for instance, claim it was "spurious", not fact.  Others, John Adams it represented the "genuine sense of America at that moment."  You can read the Declarations text here.

It was taken the month after Lexington and Concord.  I believe the reporting of the day stand it as fact.  This particular article mentions reference of the declaration in Southern Revolutionary War pension applications.  It was fun to search the rolls for my own ancestors.  They are there in the North Carolina Militia and Virginia Continentals.

It may well be simply Jefferson's policy in later life to ensure his own legacy and discount anything that preempts his own work?  Probably.

Today in 1965

The 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade landed at Da Nang, Republic of Vietnam.

70 years ago today

On this day in 1945 the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions landed on Sulfur Island, known to us as Iwo Jima.  And so began 35 days of combat that cost the lives of 6,281 Americans.

Semper Fi.

Today in History

One of my early Heroes of the Marine Corps, Jack Lucas birthday was today.  He died in 2008.   He won the Medal of Honor at age 17 on Iwo Jima.  He joined the Marine Corps at 14, pretending to be of age and forging his mother's signature.  He stowed away to be with a friend in the 5th Marine Division and headed to Iwo Jima.  Semper Fi.

You can hear him tell the story in his own words.

Happy Birthday Chuck Yeager

Today is the birthday of fighter pilot, aviation pioneer, General Chuck Yeager!  Born February 13th, 1923, the General turns 92 today!

Captain Chuck Yeager with the X-1 at Edwards Air Force Base in California.