This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: We Remember

  • We Few… We Happy Few…

    While the Band of Brothers speech from Henry VI used to always be posted on St. Crispin’s Day, the date was unintentionally missed this year. Maybe it’s more appropriate to place that speech here today, on the 100th anniversary of the ending of World War I.

    It is therefore herewith provided, and while at the time, women did not participate in warfare (with the exception of Jeanne d’Arc) , perhaps you could include “and Sisters” in your mind during Kenneth Branagh’s rousing pep talk by Henry V to his troops before the Battle of Agincourt.

    And set a place for those who did not make it home….

    … and sing the “Non Nobis” and “Te Deum” and then… to home.

     

  • The Ghost Army of World War II

    This was a well-kept secret. It was, in fact, so well-kept for over 50 years, that no one knew anything about it, including the families of these people who worked in this unit, until it was finally declassified. It was the Ghost Army, a replicated army of equipment, tanks, landing craft, planes, etc., placed where Hitler’s spies and army could see them, and be fooled into believing they were real.

    Most of the people who participated in this project just put it behind them and got on with their lives, so much so, that when Bernie Bluestein, a local Chicago area artist who is now 95, decided he wanted to take an Honor Flight to Washington, DC, all those memories he’d let fade into the past started coming to the surface. When he went to Europe with his son Keith, now 63, he began to tell his son all of this buried, long-suppressed stuff, astonishing him.

    Mr. Bluestein was 19 when he was drafted into the Army. Because of his ability to sketch comic strips and pinup girls in Cleveland, OH, he was placed with the 603rd Camouflage Engineers Battalion, the objective being to create an entire army that would fool Adolf Hitler’s spies and aerial observers. These people were all levels of skill in art, from professional artists to students. They created everything from fake airplanes parked on what appeared to be airfields to convoys emplaced in France, to inflatable tanks with loudspeakers playing tank noises – all to fool the German army. And they couldn’t tell their families where they were (23rd Headquarters Special Troops unit) or what they were doing.

    The full story on Mr. Bluestein is here:  https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-ghost-army-veteran-20181110-story.html

    To keep historical records intact, an organization titled The Ghost Army Legacy Project has been formed. The link is here: http://www.ghostarmylegacyproject.org

    The first ever Ghost Army historical marker was dedicated September 26, 2018, in Bettembourg, Luxembourg.

    The marker stands on the exact spot where the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops carried out Operation BETTEMBOURG, one of their longest and most important operations.  http://www.ghostarmylegacyproject.org/news

     

  • Armistice Day 1918 is Veterans Day 2018

    11th November 1918 – Armistice ending World War I is signed.

    General John Pershing continued the attacks on the Germans, because he did not know when/if the peace treaty (Armistice) would be signed. The HistoryNet article is well worth the time it takes to read it. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the Armistice ending World War I went into effect. Signed by all parties at 05:00 hours that morning, it meant that hostilities should have ended quickly. But troops were still sent into the field to fight and artillery was still fired to get rid of unspent munitions. GEN Pershing is quoted in the article below.

    http://www.historynet.com/world-war-i-wasted-lives-on-armistice-day.htm

    From the New York Times files below are archival photos taken on Armistice Day and after. You bubbleheads will note the crew of the USS Calumet, a submarine patrol, returning to the Brooklyn Marine Base from sea duty, taken on Nov. 17, 1918.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/09/world/europe/armistice-day-100th-anniversary-photos.html

    These photos cover an expanded period of time and are from various source, including London and Paris. Note the US troops in the parade through London’s Great Arch.

    Armistice Day became an official holiday in the US in 1938, and in 1954, following World War II and the Korean War, President Eisenhower changed the name of the Armistice Day holiday to Veterans Day. The date was moved around several times but finally resettled on November 11, where it belongs. Note the differences in the VA health care system between 1930 and now.

    World War I was supposed to b e the war to end all wars.

    It was not.

    There is no such thing.

  • Better Late Than Never

    ‘A go-getter and a pioneer’: Waukegan woman who served as World War II pilot awarded posthumously for her service

    Janice Charlotte Christensen of Waukegan died on April 26, 1965, without a veteran’s recognition for her World War II service in the Women Airforce Service Pilots.

    Known as WASPs for short, the more than 1,800 civilian volunteer young women flew almost every type of military aircraft as part of the experimental program that lasted two years.

    Near her grave at the North Shore Garden of Memories cemetery in North Chicago on Friday, Capt. Christensen was honored by U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider in a ceremony that formally recognized her status as a World War II veteran.

    Schneider offered words of appreciation for the woman who learned how to fly at what is now Waukegan National Airport when she was 29, then helped establish the Waukegan Civil Air Patrol Squadron in 1942 and was accepted as a WASP in 1943.

    “They were the elite and helped the war effort. They were brave,” Schneider said.

    Though it was unavailable to be affixed Friday due to the morning’s wintry weather, a WASP medallion from the Department of Veterans Affairs will be permanently placed on Christensen’s grave at the North Chicago cemetery soon so the public can pay their respects properly, Schneider said.

    “It’s a shame that Janice and WASP like her were denied veteran status after their service — a mistake not corrected for more than 30 years,” Schneider said. “But it is truly inspiring to me, and to everyone here, that our community has come together today to pay our respect to her and all the other WASP (personnel).”

    It wasn’t until 2009 that veterans in the WASP program were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Barack Obama.

    Christensen never got to see her service recognized, but her relatives said she would have been pleased with Friday’s ceremony.

    “We were proud that my sister Janice joined the WASP (program). Her job was to take planes from where they were manufactured to where they were needed,” said Dagmar Joyce Noll, Christensen’s sole surviving sibling. “She knew that what she was doing was helping to win and end WWll.”

    The rest of the story is at the link.

    Unfortunately, Janice Christiansens is probably not the only WWII WASP pilot who has been overlooked.  I think ChipNASA could probably supply us with a directional link to a roster of them. If you have a relative whose efforts went unrecognized please speak up.

    They flew in all weather, under all conditions, to get the job done, and because they loved to fly, like their counterparts, the British transport pilots who ferried all planes of all kinds in all weathers from factories to air bases in England.  They all faced great hazards that would probably ground a lot of current pilots, and did the job they were hired to do because they loved to fly.

    It was not a hazard-free job, either. Some of these transport pilots died doing that job. So let’s give them a nod and lift a glass to all the air transport pilots, women and men both.

  • Pentagon identifies US soldier killed in Afghanistan

    Pentagon identifies US soldier killed in Afghanistan

    The Defense Department on Friday released the name of the soldier who was killed this week in Afghanistan.

    Spc. James Slape, 23, died Thursday in Helmand province from wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device. He was deployed in support of Operations Resolute Support and Freedom’s Sentinel.

    Slape, of Morehead City, North Carolina, was assigned to 60th Troop Command, North Carolina Army National Guard.

    The incident is under investigation, officials said.

    Additional information about Slape was not immediately available.

     

  • Gold Star Mothers Day

    Gold Star Mothers Day

    Gold Star Mother’s Sunday September 30, 2018

    The organization was named after the Gold Star that families hung in their windows in honor of the deceased veteran.
    After years of planning, June 4, 1928, twenty-five mothers met in Washington, DC to establish the national organization, American Gold Star Mothers, Inc.
    The success of our organization continues because of the bond of mutual love, sympathy, and support of the many loyal, capable, and patriotic mothers who while sharing their grief and their pride, have channeled their time, efforts and gifts to lessening the pain of others.
    We stand tall and proud by honoring our children, assisting our veterans, supporting our nation, and healing with each other.
    On May 28, 1918, President Wilson approved a suggestion made by the Women’s Committee of the Council of National Defenses that, instead of wearing conventional mourning for relatives who have died in the service of their country, American women should wear a black band on the left arm with a gilt star on the band for each member of the family who has given his life for the nation. After years of planning, June 4, 1928, twenty-five mothers met in Washington, DC to establish the national organization, American Gold Star Mothers, Inc.

    FaceBook Link

     

  • Midway Pilot’s Fini-Flight

    Robert Campbell

    The Chico Enterprise-Record passed along the sad news that Navy Cross recipient Robert Campbell, the last known living pilot from the Air Battle of Midway, passed away Sept. 8, at the age of 101.

    From the Enterprise-Record:

    “Campbell received 17 ribbons and medals. Among them is the Navy Cross and a Presidential Citation. He flew missions off the USS Yorktown, USS Saratoga and the USS Enterprise against the Japanese in the Pacific. In 1941, he joined the USS Saratoga Bombing Squadron 3, and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he participated in battles throughout the South Pacific.

    He earned the Navy Cross for his participation in the Air Battle of Midway in June 1942. He was involved in numerous battles during World War II, including Guadalcanal.”

    Campbell’s Navy Cross citation can be found on the Military Times Hall of Valor website: https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/21212

     

  • A quick note about the future of TAH

    Putting up that post about Jonn was the worst thing I’ve ever had to do.  I really did spend the entire night sobbing.  But you know how in the military things get stupid shitty and you have no option but to soldier on to the next task?  Well, I had to do that, to the best of my ability.

    I’ve blogged here, or represented the blog in one capacity of another for 10 years.  Slightly over that.  We get so many lawsuits it would make your head spin.  Some you know about, some you don’t.  Because of one I had to take a hiatus from blogging.  Not because I wanted to, but because my employer was getting brought into it, and they justifiably wanted me to limit their liability while that was going on.  Some of you have seen the final judgement, and you know what my lawyers fees alone were.  I could have bought Peyton Manning’s house for about the same.  (And what I’ve received so far couldn’t buy a stamp.)

    I kept my law license despite not really working as a lawyer because I wanted to be able to help Jonn and the blog as much as I could.  When I had twins this year, it was getting too much.  But I still helped Jonn and the blog as much as I could behind the scenes.

    But I want to make one thing clear, in the roughly 7 years of representing him and 10 years of blogging, I’ve never received a nickel.  And I told Jonn if he sent me any money I’d kick him in the balls.  He graciously offered to pay my law license, and I declined that as well.  He did get me a wedding gift, and he bought me a kindle for my birthday one year.  No one else here gets paid either.  So let me put that out of your heads, we got nothing, and were happy with that.  In the future, we will get nothing, and we are happy with that.   When we did fundraisers, all of us would contribute our own money as well.

    I had kind of hoped when I put up the post people would want to mothball the blog.  That decidedly was not your opinions as I read them, you want this blog….well, this COMMUNITY to continue.  So, for now at least we will make it work however we do it.

    Yes, we took down the PayPal that went to Jonn.  But not for the reasons that seems to be popping up.  We’re trying to get Jonn’s name off all this stuff for legal reasons.  I spent part of the week with Jonn’s family, digging in his drawers, going through his files, talking to the funeral director, trying to arrange the wake and 15 million other things.  I took leave from work, drove 10 hours each way and did what I could to help his wife and kids.  And I will continue to do that.  Taking off his PayPal wasn’t an effort to get me off food stamps.  You can’t have lawsuits that go after his estate, wife and kids.  So I have to get that stuff fixed.  But I gave every penny to the family.  I’m helping them with innumerable things, that one is pretty minor to be frank.

    Alas, on the list of shit I have to accomplish, figuring out the blog is SUPER low priority.  The family is my priority.   Jonn is my priority.  For instance, I know Jonn wanted his wake open casket and in his uniform.  Well, his uniform doesn’t fit, and is from 1993.  Thing looked rough.  Jonn wasn’t just a platoon sergeant, he was ALL OF OUR platoon sergeant.  So, my best friend and a commenter here went to Fort Useless (SP?) and got Jonn a new set of blues.  All new ribbons, new blue cord, new Combat Infantry Badge.  Because I’ll be damned if he’s going to his eternal reward in a shitty uniform.

    I’m also planning the wake party.  The family is afraid that some turds would show up.  Probably a valid fear, since we have comments in the spam filter right now that would drive you right through the roof.  We delete them.  But if you live in the DC metro area, and you think you want to go, email me.  My email is on the contact us page somewhere.  We worked out a deal that it’s basically a flat fee, Guinness and other beers, and food included.

    You guys have sent donations to the new donation thing.  I’m going to probably put that money towards the uniform (those things are expensive) and paying for the wake party.  Which is why you should come.  It’s for the community.  Now, it won’t cover it all, but we’ll figure it out.  And yes, we will take donations there for Jonn’s family as well, the lump sum thing is so the poor bartender we get doesn’t have to do 50 checks.

    I take the blame for not being clearer about this from jump street.  And my only defense is I am jumping out of my ass trying to do a bunch of other things.  Like go thru Jonn’s emails.  Do you know that he has saved every email since 2008?  Well, he has.  And as I go thru them looking for things that need to be addressed I see a guy who loved all of you, and you guys clearly loved him.  It’s 11:30 as I wrote this, and my no shit bedtime is usually 7:30.  And I’ve been doing this every day since I lost my friend.  But I should have made time to explain to you guys what is going on too.

    Short story, we’re hoping to keep TAH up and running, fresh content etc.  We’re not asking for your money, because near as I can tell everything is paid for now.  Again, no one is getting a dime of it, unless you count the beers you can drink at his send-off.  But please understand that not being forthcoming on everything is a two fold logic: 1) I’ve got Jonn’s family to worry about, and 2) Idiots out there will take advantage of the knowledge.  Also, frankly, I have no idea how to do this, I’m not in this position very often.

    But if you have questions, concerns, or thoughts, by all means share them with me.  But my response may be terse.  Not because I don’t care, it’s just that my list of shit to do in the next 2 weeks is longer than a giraffes neck.

    But we’ll get through this.  Together.  I know I don’t post much here lately (again, lawyers told me not to, wasn’t my choice) so you might not know me.  But Jonn trusted me enough to tell me he wanted me to keep the blog going.  And while I don’t really *want* to, I would do anything for Jonn.  So, just have a little faith in him and his judgement, even if you don’t know me enough to trust me.  I wouldn’t do anything to hurt Jonn’s rep or his family.  And I won’t do anything to take away your TAH family either.