Old soldiers’ perspectives: Pearl Harbor

MoonHowler

“The mothers suffered the most.”  I think the fathers suffer equally.  It’s hard to imagine that the ones who died were 17 and 18 years old.  That’s the age most kids graduate from high school.

Often Americans envision our military as “fighting men” when actually those men are really someone’s son or daughter.  When we are chest thumping and calling for blood, it is prudent to remember who really goes in on the front lines.

The survivors are few now.  Pearl Harbor is passing into the ages.
Another personal perspective

More reading:  Tom Brokaw:  Pearl Harbor is the birth place of America’s “Greatest Generation”

Pearl Harbor: 75th Anniversary

MoonHowler

After 9-11, I asked my mother how it was different from Pearl Harbor and if she knew at the time how Pearl Harbor was going to affect all of them. She said on that Sunday afternoon, none of them had any idea just how life-altering the attack on Pearl Harbor would be on their lives. Most people had never heard of Pearl Harbor.

“Pearl Harbor” would soon be a household word in every American home.  Yes, it was life-altering for just about everyone in the world at that time and for as much of the future as most of us can imagine.

75 years ago seems like ancient history to many people.  To put some of the passage of time into perspective, Pearl Harbor happened 80 years after the start of the Civil War.  Queen Elizabeth was a young woman driving an ambulance for her country.  She was still a princess.  My mother was going to marry my father in 6 months.  My father would enlist a year to the day after Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor will always be remembered and will always be a solemn day for America.

History in the making: Hillary can now claim the Democratic presidential nomination

MoonHowler

USAToday.com:

Hillary Clinton now has the necessary delegates to claim the Democratic presidential nomination. The Associated Press said so Monday, based on weekend primaries in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and on superdelegates who had decided to back her since the last time they were canvassed.

But there is more here than the AP’s tally and Clinton’s support among the party establishment. With Tuesday’s primaries in California, New Jersey and four other states, Clinton finally amassed a majority of pledged delegates — the ones awarded based on the actual outcome of elections. What’s more, when all of the votes are counted, her popular vote advantage over Bernie Sanders (3 million votes going into Tuesday) will likely give her a double-digit victory.

I have been very quiet about the Democrats during the primary process.  I saw no point in beating up one over the other.  I knew that is where I was going to vote, once Trump established his dominance.  Why have to eat your words. Now it’s time for Bernie to just go away.

The historical significance of yesterday is not lost on me.  My grandmother was 31 years old before she could vote.  When I graduated from high school and college, I don’t think I even thought it was possible for a woman to secure the nomination of either party.  I remember when Geraldine Ferraro was selected as a running mate for Walter Mondale.  Her claim to fame was “Tits and Fritz.”  That’s pretty much where the country stood at its knuckle dragging state in the 80’s.

Good for Hillary.   She has done what no other woman has been able to do.  She secured the nomination of her party.  The rest is up to her.

In the words of Neil Young:  Long May You Run!

 

Captain George S. Harris: Memorial Day 2016

MoonHowler

memorial-day-banners-2016-signs-images-posters

Captain George Harris:  Memorial Day 2016

As Memorial Day approaches once again, I have been thinking about it more and more.  Perhaps it is because I have been reading more books about the war, the latest being “With the Old Breed” by E.B. Sledge who was a Marine mortar man In K Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division during the battles of Pelilieu and Okinawa.

As we know, Memorial Day, is a day when we, as Nation, remember those who died in the service of our Nation.  Those of us of a “certain age” remember this day as Decoration Day, which was established shortly after the Civil War.  And we have many Americans to remember because more than a million Americans have died in all the wars we have fought from the Revolutionary War to our present 15 year war in the Middle East.

Some 2,400 years ago, Plato said, “The dead have seen the end of war.”  They lie silently in military cemeteries all over our Nation from our National Cemetery at Arlington, Virginia to cemeteries in every state of the union and in cemeteries overseas.  These cemeteries bear  witness to the cost of war.  Headstones and monuments, including our Tomb of the Unknowns, stand as silent sentries over those who have given the last full measure of devotion.

But what of those who have given less that the last full measure?  In the last 15 years, more than a million young men and women have had their lives altered forever.  Some have had “million dollar wounds” but many have lost one or more limbs while others have suffered traumatic brain injuries and Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.  Across our nation, 22 veterans die by their own hand every day.  That’s one every 65 minutes.  And our Veterans Administration health care system is overwhelmed.  Just as we owe those who have fallen for their sacrifice, we also owe those remain among us.

So today, when you pause to remember those who have died in the service of our Nation, I ask that you take a few moments to remember those who served and came home to live among us to remind us that, as John Steinbeck said, “All war is a symptom of man’s failure as a thinking animal.

Thank you, George, for your words of honor again this year.  For those who don’t know, George Harris is our honorary poet laureate of Moonhowlings.  George began his military career  as a young kid, age 18, in the Navy.  He served as a corpsman in Korea and in Vietnam.  He has certainly seen more than his fair share of mayhem and destruction of the human soul.

Thanks again, George, for guiding us in the right direction on this day.

Rating_Badge_HM

The Plague: Black rats exonerated–blame the gerbils

MoonHowler

black rat

Just when we found out that the hype about the Crusades was partially a myth, now we have another millennial myth blow up in our faces.  Rats have been exonerated for having killed a hundred   million people with the Black Plague.  Instead, scientists have discovered that this deadly recurring scourge was caused by rat cousins, the gerbils.  According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the  Washington Post reports:

After nearly eight centuries of accusing the black rat for spreading the bubonic plague, scientists say they have compelling evidence to exonerate the much-maligned rodent. In the process, they’ve identified a new culprit: gerbils.

It’s always the cute ones you have to watch out for, isn’t it?

gerbil

According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, climate data dating back to the 14th century contradicts the commonly held notion that European plague outbreaks were caused by a reservoir of disease-carrying fleas hosted by the continent’s rat population.

 

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Citizens of Charlottesville and beyond clash over Lee / Jackson Day

MoonHowler

confederate

Dailyprogress.com:

A debate over whether to pan Charlottesville’s annual observance of a holiday honoring Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson plunged the Charlottesville City Council Chambers into chaos at times Monday.

On Feb. 17, the council is scheduled to decide whether Charlottesville will continue to mark the Friday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day — the third Monday of January — as a local government holiday.

“There is a sentiment in our community that the holiday is outdated and offensive to many, and should be retired here in the City,” City Manager Maurice Jones wrote in a Jan. 28 email to city employees.

Charlottesville does not give employees a paid day off on Veterans Day, he noted, at the meeting.

The debate Monday drew speakers from Petersburg and Richmond and letter writers from Oregon, Maryland and Ohio, some of whom signed their notes “In Honor of Old Virginia” or “Respectfully … a daughter of the South.”

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Patriotism over Partisanship

MoonHowler

marine barracks 2

Robert F. Kennedy posted the following piece in the Huffington Post  on May 19.  I reposted the opinion piece from his blog in its entirety because it spoke to a time that apparently is no longer with us; when patriotism was more important than partisanship.

 

My uncle, President John F. Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize winning best-seller Profiles in Courage recounted the stories of courageous U.S. Senators — Republicans and Democrats — who chose patriotism over partisanship and sacrificed personal ambition to national welfare. The GOP’s recent efforts to gin up presidential scandals in punitive hearings, media lynchings, and weekly calls for impeachment, evince a party-wide pathology that puts partisanship over patriotism. For Republicans who believe that patriotism ends with lapel pins and cowboy costumes, it might be useful to consider some historical examples of true patriotism by a political party.

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Thinking back in time….

MoonHowler

As we come creeping up on the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, those of us who were alive and remember  that entire horrible event generally can tell you right where we were and what we were doing the moment we heard the news.  My parents’ generation can tell you right where they were when they heard about Pearl Harbor.  These events seem to be indelible universal time stamps on our collective timelines, as Americans.

Many of us will never forget seeing the first lady crawl across that limousine or cradling the President in her arms.  We wont forget the days that unfolded as we watched the presumed killer, Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated by a small time hood, Jack Ruby, or the funeral itself.  Who can forget the caisson or the riderless horse, or that tiny little boy saluting his father?

The Kennedy murder/assassination anniversary started some questions in my mind.  What top 3 events in my lifetime have been the most notable, to me.  Would other people agree?  I don’t mean family events like graduations,, births, deaths, marriage, but events that occur outside one’s family.  I have to ponder the third event.

What about you?  What top 3 events stand out in your mind?    Please share.  Will we match?  What three events,  outside your family, stand out in your mind so you can tell where you were and what you were doing at the moment you learned of the event?

 

 

The National Parks: America’s Best Idea

MoonHowler

yosemite

As Yosemite National Park stands in grave danger of fire, it is time again to enjoy Ken Burns’ The National Parks:  America’s Best Idea.  I never tire of the National Parks and the genius of making America own them.  How many countries have these kinds of parks available to the common man?  Most beautiful spots are owned by the rich and elite in other spots around the world. Yellowstone National Park was the very first (1872)and it just happens to be my favorite.  It isn’t the prettiest by far but the animals and geysers and geological uniqueness make up for what it lacks in beauty.   Perhaps the best thing about it is that the American buffalo was preserved and kept from extinction.

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The 4 Horsemen: Everything is Relative Pts I & II

MoonHowler

Horsemen. 4

(A huge thank you to Steve Randolph for digging out the information!)

Part 1: The Players

Once upon a time during the first Dark Ages in Prince William County, in the year 1972, there were 7 magisterial districts and 7 supervisors. There was no at-large chairman. He was elected from the ranks.  There was a school board. Each of the 7 members were appointed by the supervisor for that district.  Well, there should have been a school board.

Five of the supervisors were new and 2 were incumbents.

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The Leesburg Confederate Soldier on trial

MoonHowler

WTOP.com:

LEESBURG, Va. – A statue of a Confederate soldier that has stood in front of the historic courthouse in Loudoun County since 1908 is now being called inappropriate and a local lawyer says it should be removed.

The statue was erected to honor the war dead at a time when many Civil war veterans were still alive.

The statue shows a Confederate soldier standing guard with his rifle ready.

An inscription, carved into the stone monument, says, “In memory of the Confederate Soldiers of Loudoun County, Va. Erected May 28, 1908.”
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Where were you when you heard the news–48 years ago today?

MoonHowler

Walter Cronkite is heard announcing that JFK had been shot and killed.

November 22, 1963.  The nation was stunned. 

Where were you and what were you doing when you heard the news?  As I recall, I heard he had been shot shortly after  noon.  It was a Friday I believe. 

Were you a fetus or a gleam?  Were you a child, a teen or an adult?  Can you remember it like it was yesterday?

Johnny we hardly knew ye…but the torch lives on. 

 

O’Reilly’s Lincoln book banned from Ford’s Theater

MoonHowler

From Politico:

Bill O’Reilly strongly defended his best-selling “Killing Lincoln” book on Monday after the Ford’s Theatre bookstore refused to sell it because of alleged historical inaccuracies.

The Fox News host told POLITICO that the attack on his book about President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination is “a concerted effort by people who don’t like me to diminish the book.”

The alleged mistakes by O’Reilly and co-author Martin Dugard start in the prologue and are found in other places in the book, according to Emerson’s analysis published in The Washington Poston Saturday. O’Reilly claims Ford’s Theatre burned to the ground in 1863, but it actually happened on Dec. 30, 1862. He writes several times over that Lincoln held meetings or sat in the Oval Office — a nice image. It turns out, however, that the West Wing’s Oval Office wasn’t built until 1909, during President William Howard Taft’s administration, Emerson wrote.

Should it matter if the book contains inaccuracies?  None of us were there.  How about the book that claims the Grand Canyon was part of the great flood and is only 6,000 years old?  That book got to sit right in the Grand Canyon book stores.  I saw it with my own eyes, several times.  I think a book like that is far more damaging than O’Reilly’s book that might have an inaccuracy or so. 

I bought the O’Reilly book as an audible.  I haven’t listened to it yet.  I was curious about what he had to say.  O’Reilly’s historical street cred is fairly good, while not adorned with academic honors, he has taught the subject.  If it were too academic, the average Joe, including me, probably wouldn’t want to read it.

Who has read it and who will read it or do we just trash it on the say-so of Ford’s Theater?

Martin Luther King Memorial Unveiled on the National Mall

MoonHowler

The Martin Luther King Memorial was unveiled and given to President Obama to present to the people of the United States of America.  This is the first monument on the mall that is not a war memorial or a presidential monument

The memorial was supposed to be dedicated on August 28, the anniversary date of Dr. King’s I Have a Dream Speech. It had to be delayed because of the hurricane and the earthquake.

President Obama’s speech: