Mr. Conor Timmis sends us the YouTube video of his complete documentary about the Korean War.
To commemorate the 60th anniversary of The Korean War, actor/filmmaker Conor Timmis sets out on a year long journey to honor his late grandfather and the heroes of America’s forgotten war. Narrated by Mark Hamill (Star Wars). 100% of all filmmaker profits go to benefit the Coalition of Families of Korean and Cold War POW/MIA’s. Interview highlights include Chosin Reservoir hero Maj. Kurt Chew-Een Lee, Medal of Honor recipient and Holocaust survivor Tibor Rubin and members of the Korean War’s all-black 2nd Rangers.
I ran across an interesting little story yesterday. While rumors about the subject have circulated, good documentation has been hard to come by for nearly 13 years.
Gee. That’s . . . interesting. Looks like Richard Miniter was right all along regarding those claims he made in Losing bin Laden, doesn’t it?
Don’t simply take my word for it; recorded audio of the admission exists. Listen to Clinton’s admission yourself if you like. It’s found at about 5:34 in the video clip found here.
Clinton made the admission in a speech he gave to a group of Australian business leaders. The date of that speech? September 10, 2001.
Yeah.
This kind of crap happens when a nation’s leadership persists in treating acts of war as a “law enforcement matter”. Or when a nation elects someone President who is nothing but a naive but charismatic charlatan who’s clueless about most everything except giving speeches and chasing tail.
Or in Clinton’s case – when both are true simultaneously.
And spare me that, “But Bush has been POTUS for months when 9/11 happened!” bullsh!t. There’s no way in hell anyone can fix 8 years of abject mismanagement and neglect in barely 7 1/2 months. That’s particularly true when those running the show previously screw things up as badly as Clinton and his cronies did.
So, all of you libidiots out there who’ve had your head up your 4th point of contact for years, and who kept blaming Bush for 9/11? How about you just go grab a big honking cup of STFU now. And keep yer yaps shut about 9/11 – permanently. (Especially you, idiot who comments here as vietnam war protestor.)
While you’re keeping that yap shut, how about you chew on this to occupy your mouth instead: your “sainted hero” Billy-boi admitted he could have prevented 9/11. He also admitted he consciously decided not to dothat.
And chew on this, too: a President’s job is to make those hard decisions when are necessary to protect this nation. A President who refuses to do that because “someone might get killed” is not fit to hold the office.
Ex-PH2 sent us a link from Stars & Stripes which reports the story of the six Smith brothers, sons of a chimney sweep in Barnard Castle in the north of England, who went off to war “for King & Country” during the First World War. Five of those brothers were killed in combat and the Queen Mary ordered Wilfred, the sixth son home.
So Wilfred went home to Barnard Castle — though little is known about exactly how that came about. He suffered the lingering respiratory effects of a mustard gas attack and newspaper reports suggested he was temporarily blinded. But once home, he worked as a chimney sweep and a stone mason.
At the Bowes Museum, a memorial was erected to residents who fell in the Great War, including Wilfred’s brothers. His mother laid the first wreath at its dedication in 1923 — chosen by the war veterans for the honor. Wilfred was at her side.
[…]
Wilfred Smith lived until 1972, when he died at age 74. He was a frequent visitor to the monument at the Bowes Museum that bears his brothers’ names.
. . . and best wishes to the more junior military services: the US Navy, US Marine Corps, US Coast Guard, and US Air Force.
The occasion? This Saturday, we will celebrate 239th anniversary of the establishment of the USA’s first military service – the US Army.
The US Army was established on 14 June 1775. On that date, the Continental Congress authorized the enlistment of riflemen to serve for a period of one year. It is the senior US military service.
The official birthdays of the other US military services are as follows:
US Navy – 13 October 1775
USMC – 10 November 1775
US Coast Guard – 4 August 1790
US Air Force – 18 September 1947
The US Army, US Navy, and USMC each are older than the USA itself. All three of these services trace their history to events predating the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the US Constitution. Each was established within 7 months of the first shots of the American Revolution at Lexington and Concord – the US Army, within 2 months.
“This We’ll Defend.” That rather sums up 239 years of history quite nicely.
The Ranger Group, attached to the 116th Infantry and commanded by Lt. Col. James E. Rudder, was given the mission to capture Pointe du Hoc and destroy the guns. The Ranger Group was made up of two battalions: the 2d Rangers, under direct command of Col. Rudder, and the 5th Rangers, under Lt. Col. Max F. Schneider. Three companies (D, E, and F) of the 2d Battalion (Task Force A) were to land from the sea at H-Hour and assault the cliff position at Pointe du Hoc. The main Ranger force (5th Battalion and Companies A and B of the 2d, comprising Task Force B) would wait off shore for a signal of success, then land at the Point. The Ranger Group would then move inland, cut the coastal highway connecting Grandcamp and Vierville, and await the arrival of the 116th Infantry from Vierville before pushing west toward Grandcamp and Maisy.
One DUKW was hit and sunk by 20-mm fire from a cliff position near the Point. The nine surviving LCAs came in and managed to land in parallel on a 400-yard front on the east side of Point du Hoc, landing about 0705. Allied naval fire had been lifted since H-Hour, giving the Germans above the cliff time to recover. Scattered small-arms fire and automatic fire from a flanking machine-gun position hammered the LCAs, causing about fifteen casualties as the Rangers debarked on the heavily cratered strip of beach. The grapnel rockets were fired immediately on touchdown. Some of the water-soaked ropes failed to carry over the cliff, but only one craft failed to get at least one grapnel to the edge. In one or two cases, the demountable extension ladders were used. The DUKWs came in but could not get across the cratered beach, and from the water’s edge their extension ladders would not reach the top of the cliff.
Despite all difficulties, the Rangers used the ropes and ladders to scramble up the cliff. The German defenders were shocked by the bombardment and improbable assault, but quickly responded by cutting as many ropes as they could. They rushed to the cliff edge and poured direct rifle and machine gun fire on the Rangers, augmented by grenades tossed down the slope. The Rangers never broke, continuing to climb amidst the fire as Ranger BAR men picked off any exposed Germans. The destroyer USS Satterlee (DD-626) observed the Rangers’ precarious position, closed to 1500 yards and took the cliff top under direct fire from all guns, a considerable assist at a crucial time.
Within ten minutes of the landing the first Americans reached the top of the cliffs.
I may just watch “The Longest Day” tonight. “What does ‘bitte, bitte’ mean?”
Given recent events, it probably is a good idea to look at history for the treatment of US deserters. Deserters like Charles Jenkins, a sergeant who had the brilliant idea, while stationed in South Korea, to defect to North Korea in order to avoid anticipated service in Vietnam. His plan worked so well that he evaded service anywhere besides North Korea for 40 years. According to our friends at Business Insiders;
Jenkins, who claimed he wasn’t a communist sympathizer, said he defected to North Korea because he was being ordered to lead increasingly provocative patrols. He also heard his unit might deploy to Vietnam.
Once in the enemy’s hands, Jenkins said he expected North Korea to give him to the Russians, who would in turn deliver Jenkins to America in a prisoner swap. Instead, Jenkins was brought to a house where he lived with three other U.S. military deserters — 19-year-old Larry Abshier, 21-year-old James Dresnok, and 19-year-old Jerry Wayne Parrish — who had all defected separately since 1962….
After 40 years in North Korea, he returned to Japan and turned himself in to American authorities who sentenced him to 25 days in jail and released him. According to an NBC report in 2004;
Jenkins, 64, left the prison at the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka and was taken by helicopter to the Camp Zama Army base, where he was to join his family for several days before moving to his wife’s hometown in northern Japan.
“Forty years is a long time,” a sobbing Jenkins, still in uniform, told The Associated Press after he arrived at Camp Zama. “My plan is to stay in Japan, if they will accept me. I want to go back to the United States, but only once. With my wife, I’ll live in Japan, with my family.”
It seems to me that these deserters all have a plan which quickly falls apart when they bump up against our enemies. I guess that’s why they’re our enemies.
One of my former workmates sent us a link the the New York Times article to the story of Marilyn Monroe and her job in the drone program in 1944;
Working 10 hours a day for $20 a week in a World War II defense plant 70 years ago was 18-year-old Norma Jeane Dougherty, wife of a young United States merchant seaman assigned overseas. Her company, called Radioplane, in Burbank, Calif., founded by the British character actor Reginald Denny, made small remote-controlled pilotless aircraft, intended to help United States Army and Navy anti-aircraft gunners refine their targeting skills.
[…]
Ms. Dougherty inspected and sprayed parachutes in Burbank, despite warnings from her mother-in-law, a Radioplane nurse who had gotten her the job, that the fumes would ruin her “beautiful hair” and her health.
That story stands in stark contrast to the recent war effort, you know, how America went to the mall while the troops went to war.
Riflemusket writes to remind us that it was 27 years ago today (May 17, 1987) that the USS Stark was attacked by a single Iraqi Aircraft two miles outside the exclusion zone with two Exocet anti-ship missiles. 29 men were killed in the explosion and the fire, eight died late and twenty one were wounded. Of the twenty nine killed, two were lost at sea. From Wiki;
The first Exocet came in at just over ten feet above the sea and struck the port side hull near the bridge. It failed to detonate but rocket fuel ignited and caused a large fire that spread throughout the post office, the store room, and the combat operations center.
The second Exocet struck the port side as well and exploded, leaving a ten by fifteen foot hole in the frigate’s side. Electronics for the Stark’s Standard missile defense went out and Captain Brindel did not order his men to return fire. The AWACS plane was still in the area and just after witnessing the attack, it radioed a nearby Saudi airbase to send aircraft for an interception but the ground controllers did not have the authority to order a sortie so the Iraqi jet escaped unharmed. The USN rules of engagement applicable at the time allowed the Stark to defend herself after sufficiently warning the hostile aircraft.
