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.

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.

32 Years ago today.

32 Years ago today Iranian backed terrorists attacked the "barracks" of the 24 MEU at the Beirut Airport.  Stars and Stripes carried the story on the 30th anniversary.  The GWOT, Large VBIED's are nothing new, simply the lexicon and the narrative have changed.

Semper Fi.

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.

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.

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.

The Great Raid

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the raid to free American POWs from the Japanese at Cabanatuan.  A close run thing too.  The Japanese 14th Army had made the decision to "Kill-All" the POWs they held in the Philippines, and had already massacred 150 POWs at the Puerto Princesa Camp. Captain Bob Prince, C.O. of Company C, 6th Ranger Battalion spoke with the Seattle PI.  

It is one of those great stories of World War 2.  According to Bob Prince, he was satisfied with the movie portrayal in The Great Raid.  This story was first told by John Wayne in Back to Bataan, a 1945 film that opens with scenes of the raid and includes some of the liberated POWs.  Both good films.

A Veteran Remembers

From the Duluth News Tribune. 95 year old Erling Jonassen was on Mindanao, in the Philippines when the Japanese struck that December of 1941.  Not willing to surrender, he and other soldiers struck out into the jungle, finding others and taking the guerrilla fight to the enemy with DiY warfare.  Great story for this Veteran's Day!

108 year old World War Two Vet. . .Inspirado!

"At a 108 years old, he’s not interested in changing his whiskey-soaked (cigar smoking) ways."

Now thats a good story!

Semper Fi.